Agency work comes with health warning, says study

Temporary working has grown in importance over the past 20 years. New research explores how and when being employed on a temporary rather than permanent contract can lead to worse health outcomes.

It has been known for some time that people working full-time on permanent contracts are more likely to be in better health than people working full-time on temporary contracts. However, the latest data published in a study by Ruhr Economic Papers, Health effects of temporary jobs in Europe, gives an important insight into this phenomenon.

The survey of all the 27 EU countries, except Malta, showed that the most acute difference in health outcomes between temporary and permanent workers occurs in countries where there is a high incidence of temporary contracts.

The four countries with the most severe problem are the UK, Estonia, Latvia and Poland.

Furthermore although there were no health differences between temporary and permanent workers after they left education and started on initial temporary contracts, once people found themselves in repeated temporary contracts, the health differences became manifest.

The study relied on self-reported health, that is, how people with different attitudes and lifestyles reported that they felt, nevertheless the results are still useful.