Did workers' exposure to psychosocial risks increase during the 2008 economic crisis?

Summary Using two waves of the Health and Professional Pathways (SIP) survey, this article studies workers' exposure to psychosocial risks (PSR) and its evolution between 2006 and 2010, in a context of economic crisis. We use Probit models to estimate the individual probability of exposure to the various PSRs conditional on the socioeconomic characteristics of individuals and the characteristics of their jobs. While we observe a general overexposure to PSRs among individuals aged 35 to 44, those with a bachelor's degree or those exposed to physical hardships, the exposure profiles appear to be clearly differentiated according to gender, occupational category and sector of activity. The identification of these overexposures and profiles should make it possible to better target prevention policies on these populations, which are not always those considered to be the most vulnerable on the labour market. A general increase in exposure to PSRs was observed over the period 2006-2010. The most striking increase concerns the lack of recognition. We analyze these changes according to the economic characteristics of the sectors of activity, the existence of a redundancy plan at company level and the professional mobility of individuals. There is no significant link between changes in exposure to PSR and sectoral differences in exposure to the crisis. On the other hand, we highlight a significant association between the existence of a redundancy plan at company level and the worsening of exposure to PSR. Finally, experiencing job mobility is associated with a significant reduction in exposure to PSRs. Because of the pro-cyclical nature of external job mobility, this link could constitute a transmission channel between economic crisis and exposure to PSRs.