According to a team from the Center for Mental Health Research at the Australian National University (ANU), there is data found that shows that jobs with low pay, little control, and poor recognition put employees more at risk of suffering mental health than they would with no job.
ANU associate professor and head of the research, Dr. Peter Butterworth, reported the study's findings in the journal, Occupational Environmental Medicine.
"We looked at four different aspects of work in our study: whether people were working in highly complex and demanding jobs, whether they had a say in how they did their work, whether they considered they received fair pay for their efforts, and whether they felt secure in their job," he said.
The team studied two areas amongst collected survey data. They looked at the quality of jobs employees had and the state of their mental health in the months prior to participating in the survey.
The mental health score was based on asking participants to describe the amount of anxiety, depression, happiness, and feeling of calm they experienced in the months prior to the survey.
The employed group had an average score of 75.1, while those who transitioned from unemployment to a job they enjoyed increased their score by 3.3 points above the average, and those employed at bad jobs had scores that fell by 5.6 points below average. Those who remained unemployed saw a drop of one point.
The study concluded that "psychosocial job quality is a pivotal factor that needs to be considered in the design and delivery of employment and welfare policy."
