Job Contract at Birth of the First Child as a Predictor of Women?s Labor Market Attachment: Trajectory Analyses over 11 Years

Authors

  • Laura Peutere University of Tampere, School of Health Sciences
  • Jussi Vahtera University of Turku, Department of Public Health
  • Mika Kivim?ki University College London, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
  • Jaana Pentti Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
  • Pekka Virtanen University of Tampere, School of Health Sciences

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19154/njwls.v5i1.4763

Abstract

There is a lot of evidence that pre-birth employment and access to parental leave are important predictors of mothers? labor market attachment after childbirth. This register-based study from Finland aimed to analyze in which ways the type of job contract (none, temporary, or permanent) at the start of maternity leave predicts labor market attachment in the long term. The mother cohorts were followed up for 11 years. Labor market attachment was analyzed with latent class growth analysis, which makes it possible to identify subgroups with differing track and level of development. Lack of employment and having a temporary contract at baseline were associated with slower and weaker labor market attachment irrespective of mother?s age, socioeconomic status, and subsequent births. These findings suggest that the polarization of women into the core and periphery of the labor market structure tends to continue after the birth of the first child. Temporary employment might be an obstacle for having rights for a job-protected family leave and have long-term consequences on the continuity of employment and the division of paid and unpaid work in the family.

Author Biographies

Laura Peutere, University of Tampere, School of Health Sciences

Doctoral student

Jussi Vahtera, University of Turku, Department of Public Health

Professor

Mika Kivim?ki, University College London, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health

Professor

Jaana Pentti, Finnish Institute of Occupational Health

Statistician

Pekka Virtanen, University of Tampere, School of Health Sciences

Senior research fellow

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Published

2015-03-01

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Section

Articles