Continuity and change in attitudes to job security across two generations of young Australian adults

Responses to the rise of insecure work are complicated by claims that emerging generations place less importance on security of employment, preferring ‘flexibility’. This paper investigates attitudes towards job security among young adults in Australia using survey and semi-structured interview data from the Life Patterns Study, a mixed-methods longitudinal study of two cohorts of Australian young adults (finishing school 15 years apart, in 1991 and 2006). Analysis shows that, contrary to the stereotype, job security was rated as the most important factor in deciding on a job by both cohorts. Moreover, although they also said they value flexibility, the school leaving cohort of 2006 put greater importance on job security as a factor in deciding on a job, both early in and at the end of their 20s. However, the qualitative interview data suggest that caution is needed in interpreting continuity and change in the importance of job security relative to flexibility, as there was evidence of a generational shift in the way the 2006 cohort were conceptualising employment security