Employability and employees' well-being: Mediation by job insecurity

The current study's aims are twofold: first, we investigate the relationship between employability and both work-related (engagement) and general (life satisfaction) well-being. Second, we study how employability may be relevant in times of high job insecurity. Specifically, we hypothesise (1) a positive relationship between employability and employees' well-being, (2) a negative relationship between employability and job insecurity, and (3) a negative relationship between job insecurity and employees' well-being, so that (4) job insecurity mediates the relationship between employability and employees' well-being. Results based on a sample of 559 respondents from divisions of seven Belgian organisations support our hypotheses. We conclude that employability may be a means to secure one's labour market position, rather than a means to cope with job insecurity.