Employability is believed to be a crucial concept concerning employees' job security. This study investigates whether factors associated with human capital and the dual labour market predict perceived employability. Two national representative Swedish samples are used, representing economic recession (1993, N ¼ 4952) and prosperity (1999, N ¼ 6696). Employability was perceived as higher during prosperity, but human capital factors as well as dual labour market factors predicted perceived employability, irrespective of the time period. These findings indicate that the understanding of employability is enhanced by considering both structural and individual dimensions.

The current study's aims are twofold: first, we investigate the relationship between employability and both work-related (engagement) and general (life satisfaction) well-being. Second, we study how employability may be relevant in times of high job insecurity. Specifically, we hypothesise (1) a positive relationship between employability and employees' well-being, (2) a negative relationship between employability and job insecurity, and (3) a negative relationship between job insecurity and employees' well-being, so that (4) job insecurity mediates the relationship between employability and employees' well-being. Results based on a sample of 559 respondents from divisions of seven Belgian organisations support our hypotheses. We conclude that employability may be a means to secure one's labour market position, rather than a means to cope with job insecurity.Les objectifs de cette étude sont doubles: nous étudions d'abord la relation entre l'employabilité et à la fois le bien-être relatif au travail (implication) et le bien-être global (la satisfaction provenant de l'existence). Ensuite, nous nous interrogeons sur la pertinence de l'employabilité en période de grande

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Exit, voice, loyalty, or neglect as employee responses to organizations in decline have been investigated in several studies. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether employability moderates the effects of job insecurity on exit, voice, loyalty and neglect. The results, based on questionnaire data from white-collar workers in Sweden (N = 725), indicate that individuals who are high in employability may have greater opportunities for gaining control over their working life. Job insecurity was found to be associated with increased exit as well as with decreased voice and loyalty, although these effects were stronger among individuals who perceived themselves to be employable. Thus, instead of making employees more likely to use voice in times of uncertainty, employability appears to primarily induce vocational mobility.

The general aim of the present thesis is to increase our understanding of perceived employability. Employability perceptions refer to individuals' beliefs about their possibilities of finding new, equal, or better employment. How people perceive their possibilities of getting employment is important in a labour market characterised by flexibility and uncertainty, and the present thesis sets out to investigate the nature, determinants, and implications of employability perceptions, using two population-based samples. In Study I, the aim was to study if employability and self-efficacy are two distinct but related constructs and, along with this, to investigate the nature of their association. The results from this study indicated that employability was distinct from self-efficacy and, furthermore, that employability predicted subsequent self-efficacy. In Study II, the aim was to identify predictors of perceived employability. The combination of situational and individual factors was identified as important for employability perceptions. National economic prosperity, living/working in metropolitan areas, poor physical and good psychological work environments, formal education, and competency development were found to be positively associated with perceived employability. The aim of Study III was to investigate if employability could predict subsequent health and well-being. The results from this study implied that individuals who reported higher levels of employability also reported better global health and mental well-being, but not physical complaints, one year later, after controlling for work environment variables and previous health status. In conclusion, the present thesis has implications for theory as well as practice when it concludes that employability is not primarily a self-evaluation, that it is dependent on individual as well as situational factors, and that it has implications for health and well-being.Keywords: employability, employability perceptions, flexibility, individualisation, changing labour market, self-evaluation, self-efficacy, dual labour market, human capital, health, well-being. SammanfattningVad innebär det att vara anställningsbar? Vilka faktorer påverkar en individs bedömning av sin anställningsbarhet? Handlar anställningsbarhet om en persons allmänna självuppfattning eller handlar det om faktiska kunskaper, meriter och erfarenheter från tidigare arbeten? Vilken roll spelar det sammanhang en person befinner sig i, t ex konjunkturläge eller var i landet man bor? Vilken påverkan har anställningsbarheten på en individs hälsa och välbefinnande? Detta är frågor som står i centrum i denna avhandling.Att vara anställningsbar innebär att man kan skaffa sig ett nytt, likvärdigt eller bättre, arbete när detta är nödvändigt. I takt med att arbetslivet har blivit mer föränderligt och flexibelt blir upplevelsen av att vara anställningsbar intressant att studera, eftersom själva upplevelsen har konsekvenser för hur en person reagerar och agerar på händelser i sin omgivning. I föreliggande...

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In this study, being “locked-in” at the workplace is conceptualized as being in a non-preferred workplace while at the same time perceiving low employability. The aim of the study was to investigate how being locked-in or at risk of becoming locked-in (being in a non-preferred workplace yet currently satisfied, combined with perceiving low employability) relates to well-being (subjective health and depressive symptoms). The hypotheses were tested in a Swedish longitudinal sample (T1 in 2010 and T2 in 2012) of permanent employees (N = 3491). The results showed that stability with regard to locked-in-related status (being non-locked-in, at risk of becoming locked-in, or locked-in at both T1 and T2) was related to significant and stable differences in well-being. The non-locked-in status was associated with better well-being than being at risk of becoming locked-in. Moreover, those at risk of becoming locked-in showed better well-being than those with stable locked-in status. Changes towards non-locked-in were accompanied by significant improvements in well-being, and changes towards locked-in were associated with impairments in well-being. The relationships that were found could not be attributed to differences in demographic variables and occupational preference. The findings indicate that being locked-in is detrimental to well-being. This has implications for preventative interventions.