Unemployment in Australia is currently at 4.3% – below average for the past century. But last week, the Reserve Bank forecast unemployment will slowly climb from next year on, rising to 4.7% by mid-2028 – and possibly higher if the Middle East war drags on.
That forecast came after a long-running survey of 3,600 Australians – taken in the early weeks of the US-Israel war on Iran – found people thought their chances of losing their job had risen to 26.8%. Job insecurity fears haven’t been this high since 2020’s COVID-19 lockdowns, when unemployment hit 6.4%.
If worrying about keeping your job has been keeping you up at night, you’re far from alone.
But there are evidence-based things we can do – at an individual, organisational and government level – to manage job insecurity better in uncertain times.
How job stress hits our health and even our personality
Job insecurity can take a heavy toll on your mental and physical health.
There’s strong evidence from meta analyses – research where all the studies in that area are pulled together – that people are significantly more dissatisfied with work when experiencing job insecurity. The same study found job insecurity can also affect workers’ commitment to their organisation and undermine their job performance.
There’s also some evidence job insecurity can increase workplace bullying. When people feel really insecure, they’re more likely to lash out at others. The same study showed workers who’ve been bullied tend to feel more insecure in their work.
Our 2020 study, tracking 1,046 Australians over nearly a decade, suggested a prolonged period of job insecurity could even change people’s personalities: making them less emotionally stable, less agreeable and less conscientious.
5 ways to turn fear into action
It’s easy to fall into the trap of unhealthy coping strategies when you’re stressed about work. These can include drinking too much alcohol or “ruminating”: allowing worries to go around and around in your brain.
While these can feel hard to resist, they usually leave you feeling worse.
There are healthier coping strategies, backed by research evidence.
Actively planning your career: This sounds obvious, but it can make a big difference. In a study my colleagues and I did of more than 200 Europeans on short-term contracts, we found that insecurity increased the closer people got to the end of their contracts – unless people took proactive steps. Workers who took the initiative to engage in career planning and talk to supervisors and others about how to boost their skills did not experience job insecurity, even as their short-term contracts got close to ending.
Seeking social support: reaching out to other people – family, friends, colleagues or your boss – is a well-established way to help with work stressors, such as job insecurity. For instance, a meta analysis of three decades of data from 39 countries found social support can reduce feelings of job insecurity.
Building a network with informal mentors: You don’t need a formal mentor program to do this. In fact, past evidence has shown informal mentoring (usually someone you’ve approached yourself) can be more powerful than formal mentoring. And seek out more than one mentor: one person might help on digital skills, another might have advice on career planning.
Working on in-demand skills: If you know you have gaps in your skills, such as if you’re worker with no experience with artificial intelligence (AI), start taking small steps to fill those gaps. There are a wide range of free online courses you can do from places such as EdX and Coursera, through to relatively affordable “micro credential” courses from universities around the world.
Building a life beyond work: Research shows job insecurity is more harmful to people for whom work is highly central to their identity. A 2025 Australian study confirmed what decades of research has shown: engaging in other social roles beyond work – like being a parent, friend, or volunteer – can boost your self-esteem and wellbeing.
Employers and government should do more too
It’s unfair to expect individuals to handle job insecurity on their own. Employers and governments have important roles to play too. Here are just two examples.
Better workplace training: Australians are worried about losing work to AI. Federal government research last year found more Australians are secretly using artificial intelligence, often in the absence of clear workplace rules. If organisations want to retain good staff, it’s in their interests to invest in employee training, including in AI – and have clearer policies on its use.
Read more:
Employment data shows the early signs of AI job disruption are already here
Government investment in training and welfare: A 2022 study comparing 17 European nations found workers experienced less job insecurity in nations such as Denmark and Sweden, because they invest more in helping people get work, such as plentiful opportunities for re-skilling, training, and career counselling. Generous employment benefits also improve people’s wellbeing through fostering financial security.
In Australia, JobSeeker payments to 900,000 unemployed, working-age people still fall well below the poverty line, despite repeated recommendations to lift them higher.
Read more:
Increasing JobSeeker is long overdue. Here’s how we could do it, without breaking the budget
There are few jobs for life anymore. But amid so much change, there’s more we can do more to help ourselves, our colleagues, employees and those who are already unemployed feel less job insecurity than Australians currently do.
