Job search, work volition, and stigma for unemployment among unemployed adults in Japan

Abstract

The economic turndown in the last two decades resulted in higher unemployment rate than ever in Japan. Due to long-believed lifetime employment system in Japan, not much has been known for job search behaviors and their psychological correlates among unemployed individual. In an aim of exploring relationships among job search behaviors, work volition, and stigma for unemployment among unemployed adults, an online survey was conducted with 400 unemployed individuals. Participants were asked to rate scales of job search behaviors and support, stigma attached to unemployment, work volition, and mental health indices. Two hundred and eighty two adults (70.5%) reported that they had not engaged in any job search activities for the past three months. We thus sought to examine job search preparation, performing correlational analyses with these 282 individuals. It was revealed that job search preparation was weakly correlated with job search support. Work volition and job search self-efficacy were negatively correlated with stigma for unemployment and scores of GHQ. The findings suggested the need for changing stigma for unemployment as well as negative health states.