ABSTRACT
When asked about the security of their employment, the majority of British workers report fears of impending job loss and feelings of insecurity.1 The Industrial Relations Services/MORI index of insecurity rose steadily during the early 1990s and the annual survey of employee satisfaction conducted by International Survey Research found that by the mid-1990s, feelings of employment security were in ‘free fall’ (ISR 1996:15-17). These data prompted the media to lament the end of ‘jobs for life’, especially among the ‘middle classes’ of ‘middle England’.2 In contrast, however, David Smith of the think tank SMF has argued that ‘the notion of generalised job insecurity is a will o’ the wisp, unsupported by the evidence’ (Guardian, 10 February 1997). In fact, standard statistical measures of job security, job tenure and labour turnover indicate only very modest change and, according to Burgess and Rees (1996:344), ‘emphatically do not support the view that the dramatic changes in the labour market, technology and competition have spelt the end of “jobs for life”’.
