Effects of Male Employee’s Job Dissatisfactions on Turnover:

Focus on Opportunities to Reduce Worker’s Dissatisfaction

Abstract

In the Japanese labor market, there has been a recent increase in the number of workers leaving their employers due to job dissatisfaction. We hypothesize that this change results from a decrease in the number of dissatisfied employees that remain at a firm, rather than from an increase in the number of dissatisfied employees in the entire market. In other words, this change reflects increased opportunities to reduce worker’s dissatisfaction: employees are more likely to stay if they are satisfied and move more frequently if they are dissatisfied compared to earlier time periods. From this perspective, we examine the occupational characteristics of those who remain at a workplace while being dissatisfied and those who are forced to leave their jobs even though they are satisfied.

Previous research using panel data analysis finds a positive relationship between employee’s job dissatisfaction and subsequent turnover for a firm. To improve upon these methods, we test for interaction effects between job dissatisfaction and occupational variables in a panel data analysis in order to determine who is likely to be a dissatisfied stayer or a satisfied mover.

The results are derived from logistic regression analysis of the Japanese Life Course Panel Survey conducted on young men between 2007 and 2008. Job dissatisfaction has a significant effect on turnover, except for blue-collar workers and non-standard employees. Blue-collar workers remain even if they are not satisfied because they tend to experience fewer opportunities to change to a job with more favorable conditions. On the other hand, because non-standard employees are likely to be laid off or reach the termination of their contract, and so tend to involuntarily leave their jobs even if they are satisfied. These results imply an asymmetric relationship exists between satisfaction and mobility in the present labor market.