A brief 4-item measure of perceived threat to the continuity of one's job, validated across five European countries.
| Construct measured | Job insecurity |
|---|---|
| Developed by | De Witte (validation: Vander Elst, De Witte & De Cuyper) (2014) |
| Original publication | Vander Elst, T., De Witte, H., & De Cuyper, N. (2014). The Job Insecurity Scale: A psychometrically evaluated measure across five European countries. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 23(3), 364–380. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2012.745989 |
| Number of items | 4 |
| Response format | 5-point agreement scale (1 = Strongly disagree to 5 = Strongly agree) |
Unidimensional — global cognitive-affective perception that one might lose the current job (the broader literature also distinguishes quantitative vs. qualitative insecurity; the JIS targets quantitative insecurity).
Alphas are commonly reported in the high .70s to high .80s across countries and languages.
The cross-national validation supported a one-factor structure, measurement invariance across five countries, and criterion links with lower satisfaction, commitment, performance and higher strain — consistent with the wider job-insecurity meta-analytic literature.
Employees in Europe originally; now used worldwide, especially in studies of restructuring, precarious work and economic downturns.
Belgium (original Dutch version by De Witte, 2000). Validated in Dutch, English, Spanish, Swedish and many further translations.