Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and

Organizational Behavior
Economic Stress and
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Occupational Health
Robert R. Sinclair,1 Baylor A. Graham,1
and Tahira M. Probst2
1
Department of Psychology, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina, USA;
email: [email protected]
2
Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Vancouver, Washington, USA

Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol. Organ. Behav. 2024. Keywords

11:423–51
economic conditions, work satisfaction, occupational health, job insecurity,
First published as a Review in Advance on
December 5, 2023 underemployment, financial stress, unemployment, employee health
The Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Abstract
Organizational Behavior is online at
orgpsych.annualreviews.org Economic sources of stress are some of the most pervasive and significant
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-091922- in adults’ working lives. However, while the link between economic stress
020639 and health is well established, some forms of economic stress have received
Copyright © 2024 by the author(s). This work is disproportionately less attention than they warrant in organizational psy-
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 chology and organizational behavior scholarship. In this review, we identify
International License, which permits unrestricted
five important domains of economic stress: financial stress, financial depriva-
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original author and source are credited. tion, unemployment, underemployment, and job insecurity. We review each
See credit lines of images or other third-party area of literature, focusing on its antecedents, theoretical mechanisms, and
material in this article for license information.
consequences. We then highlight an emerging body of research that studies
economic stress as a multilevel phenomenon and present a framework for
economic stress interventions that discusses primary, secondary, and tertiary
interventions at the individual, organizational, and community levels. We
conclude by identifying several important directions for future economic
stress research.

423
 INTRODUCTION
In 1992, James Carville, a campaign strategist for then–presidential candidate Bill Clinton, fa-
mously quipped, “It’s the economy, stupid,” to emphasize the importance of addressing economic
concerns in political campaigns. Carville’s insight remains true today; economic concerns drive
many current social and political trends, including the labor market in the post-COVID-19 re-
covery, the rise of gig work, reductions in company-sponsored benefits programs, the status of
organized labor, potential increases to the retirement age, and the so-called Great Resignation.
These concerns affect workers across the income spectrum. In fact, annual surveys conducted by
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the American Psychological Association (APA 2022) consistently find that work, money, and the
economy are among Americans’ top sources of stress, and with debt factored in, more than 10%
of American households have a negative net worth (Nabi 2022).
A large body of research documents the relationship between income/poverty and physical and
mental health. In a recent search of PsycInfo, Business Source Premier, and Medline, we found
more than 45,000 references to research in a wide range of academic disciplines. Although exten-
sive, this research does not include certain forms of economic stress that are especially relevant
to organizational psychology and organizational behavior (OP/OB) scholarship, nor does it ad-
dress other outcomes of interest to OP/OB scholars. Therefore, our goal is to define economic
stress, provide an overview of research on several forms of economic stress, discuss interventions
to address economic concerns, and identify future research needs.
Figure 1 shows an integrative framework that guides our thinking about economic stress. We
note that this figure is aspirational; many of the potential links shown in the model have not re-
ceived sufficient research attention. The figure highlights a few key themes. First, it identifies five
distinct sources of economic stress: unemployment, underemployment, job insecurity, financial
deprivation, and financial stress. Second, economic stress is a multilevel phenomenon, influenced

Factors influencing
Economic stressors Outcomes
economic stress

Individual level Unemployment Physical health

Organizational level Underemployment Psychological health

Macro level Job insecurity Retention/engagement

(national, regional)

Financial Discretionary
deprivation behavior

Financial stress

Figure 1
A framework linking multilevel antecedents of economic stressors to individual and organizational
consequences.

424 Sinclair • Graham • Probst

 by antecedents at the personal, organizational, and macroeconomic levels that may directly
affect the experience of economic stress or moderate the influence of other antecedents. In
general, aside from some attention to individual-level factors such as demographic or personality
differences, little attention has been paid to the antecedents of economic stressors in OP/OB
scholarship. Furthermore, antecedents at the organizational and macro levels would typically be
examined by scholars in other disciplines, such as organizational strategy or labor economics, and
we consider that literature to be beyond the scope of this review. However, an emerging literature
has addressed several of these macro-level factors as moderators of the impact of economic
stressors, and we review that research below. Third, a great deal of research has linked economic
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stressors to psychological and, to a lesser extent, physical health outcomes. However, although
there is less scholarship in this area, economic stressors also may predict organizationally rel-
evant outcomes such as retention/engagement and discretionary workplace behaviors such as
counterproductive workplace behavior and organizational citizenship behavior. Fourth, a few
studies have shown that there is likely a bidirectional relationship between economic stressors
and their outcomes; economic stressors such as poverty or unemployment can lead to poor health
outcomes, and poor health can limit one’s income or ability to hold a job (Gedikli et al. 2022,
Ridley et al. 2020).

ECONOMIC STRESS
Economic stressors refer to the income- and employment-related conditions that serve as po-
tential sources of stress experienced by individuals. The experience of stress in response to such
exposure to stressors may be influenced in part by individual primary and secondary appraisals;
similarly, the extent to which such stress results in strain outcomes may be a product of numerous
factors operating at multiple levels. Voydanoff (1990) developed a typology distinguishing several
types of economic stressors and two key dimensions along which they differ. First, some eco-
nomic stressors focus on one’s employment status, whereas others focus on one’s financial situation.
Second, some economic stressors are objective, whereas others are subjective. Using this typology
allows us to describe five types of economic stressors. Voydanoff used the term economic depri-
vation to refer to having insufficient income or the loss of income over time. We use the term
financial deprivation to distinguish it from employment-related stressors. Voydanoff also used the
term economic strain to reflect one’s subjective evaluation of one’s financial situation. We refer to it
as financial stress, to reflect the stressor–strain distinction in traditional work stress research, with
the assumption that strain would be a potential downstream consequence of financial stressors.
Third, employment instability includes concerns such as length and number of periods of un-
employment, underemployment, downward mobility, lacking access to entry-level positions, and
forced early retirement. We focus on two of these—unemployment, which refers to the objective
loss of work, and underemployment, which refers to working in a position that is below one’s level
of skills, training, ability, and so forth. Although underemployment was classified as an objective
employment stressor, researchers have studied it using both subjective and objective approaches.
Finally, Voydanoff referred to employment uncertainty as subjective perceptions of concern about
the future loss of one’s employment. In current OP/OB literature, this is more commonly re-
ferred to as job insecurity. Each of these areas includes numerous social policy and organizational
implications, and we OP/OB scholars have much to contribute to discussions about them.

Unemployment
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, individuals are considered unemployed if they do not
have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work

www.annualreviews.org • Economic Stress and Occupational Health 425

 (BLS 2023). This conceptualization distinguishes the unemployed from individuals who are not in
the labor force—including retirees, students, those providing dependent care to family members,
and others who are not seeking work. Individuals may also be marginally attached to the labor
force. For instance, those known as discouraged workers desire and are available for work and
have looked for work in the past 12 months but not in the past 4 weeks, believing that there are
no jobs available for which they would qualify. Research on unemployment often differentiates
between short-term and long-term unemployment (e.g., Trzebiatowski et al. 2020), with long-
term unemployment typically lasting longer than 27 weeks or 6 months. Theoretical perspectives
on unemployment often consider this duration important for understanding the unemployment
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process.

Theorized effects of unemployment. Perhaps the most prominent theoretical framework in

unemployment research is Jahoda’s (1982) latent deprivation model. According to this model, un-
employment acts as a stressor due to the absence of five latent functions of employment. These
latent functions include psychological needs for time structure, social contact, collective purpose,
status or identity, and activity. Unemployment deprives people of these needs, producing the strain
that leads to adverse health consequences. Similarly, Hobfoll’s (1989) Conservation of Resources
Theory can explain the relationship between unemployment and adverse outcomes (e.g., Huffman
et al. 2015). Through this framework, unemployment can be conceptualized not only as an imme-
diate loss of resources provided by the job (e.g., income) but also as a loss of personal resources that
were invested with the expectation of future gains, such as time and energy invested into one’s job.
Other theories, such as Fryer’s (1986) Agency Restriction Theory, more heavily emphasize the
income-related loss associated with unemployment, arguing that poverty/economic deprivation
limits self-directedness and agency, thus producing distress and subsequent strain. Yet, individuals
often continue to work without financial need, showing that the value of employment extends
beyond economic necessity.

Selected unemployment research. Extant scholarship on the consequences of unemployment

has consistently demonstrated strong effects on health, well-being, suicide, and mortality (McKee-
Ryan et al. 2005, Wanberg 2012). Indeed, some research has shown that these effects rival even the
loss of a spouse (Oswald & Powdthavee 2008) or becoming disabled (Boyce & Wood 2011). The
effects on an individual’s career often persist, as those who experience job loss are subsequently
more likely to be employed part-time, have greater job instability or lower-quality jobs, and sustain
long-term losses in earnings (Brand 2015).
Some research has examined how individuals adapt to unemployment (e.g., De Witte et al.
2010). Through this lens, there is an initial dramatic decrease in well-being upon job loss; however,
after some time, well-being stabilizes, and the individual begins to adapt without experiencing
additional substantial decrements in well-being. Thus, individuals may get used to unemployment
across long periods of time—though not fully recovering to their employed state. While some
research supports this notion, even sometimes showing slight increases in well-being over time
(e.g., Fryer & Payne 1986), the overall impact of unemployment on the individual is negative,
often extending well into reemployment (Daly & Delaney 2013).
However, the extent to which unemployment is impactful may depend on several factors.
For instance, older and less educated workers may be disproportionately affected by unemploy-
ment (Brand 2015). Personal resources also play an important role, as individuals tend to fare
better when they have more financial resources, social support, perceived control, self-worth,
and confidence in their job search (McKee-Ryan et al. 2005). Yet, as unemployment continues,
these resources become more difficult to maintain; financial resources dwindle over time, and

426 Sinclair • Graham • Probst

 research has shown negative impacts on social support structures such as families and col-
leagues (McKee-Ryan et al. 2005, Wanberg 2012) and even changes in personality (Boyce et al.
2015).
Successful reemployment depends on the quality of the job obtained as well as the time re-
quired to obtain it (Wanberg 2012). Upon successful reemployment, individuals often experience
increases in well-being—particularly if the job is desirable (Winefield et al. 1991). Interventions
aiming to assist unemployed individuals with the job search process have focused on teaching job
search skills that facilitate social support (Caplan et al. 1989) and enhance self-efficacy (Eden &
Aviram 1993), demonstrating their utility in successful reemployment. However, in many cases,
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recovery from unemployment is a lengthy and challenging process. Indeed, this process can bring
about many demands depending on the individual’s motivation, skills, and abilities as well as out-
side constraints (Van Hooft et al. 2004). Research suggests that unemployed individuals may even
be discriminated against in the hiring process as they may be stereotyped as less competent, espe-
cially if they have been unemployed for some time (e.g., Trzebiatowski et al. 2020). These negative
perceptions can lead to fewer interview requests and greater difficulty obtaining a job as time pro-
gresses. As such, it is critical that interventions be sensitive to this experience and that policies be
enforced to protect this vulnerable group.

Underemployment
Feldman (1996) is generally credited with sparking research on underemployment in the organi-
zational sciences. While unemployment/job loss was recognized as an important phenomenon, he
argued that research had largely ignored individuals who had more education or experience than
was required for their jobs and/or worked in jobs with less compensation, fewer hours, or less se-
curity than they had previously. Thus, the key definitional element of underemployment was that
the job is somehow regarded as inferior/lesser in relation to standards such as the employee’s past
experiences or comparisons to others with similar qualifications. According to Feldman, there are
five potential indicators of underemployment: (a) having more education than the job requires;
(b) working in a field outside of one’s formal education; (c) having more skills/experience than
needed; (d) involuntary part-time, temporary, or intermittent employment; and (e) earning 20%
less than in previous jobs or than others in one’s educational/occupational cohort. By advancing a
set of hypothesized economic, organizational, and personal antecedents of underemployment as
well as a variety of expected consequences for job attitudes, job performance/citizenship behav-
ior, and personal relationships, Feldman’s paper was the catalyst for a now robust literature on
underemployment.

Theorized effects of underemployment. Although the underemployment literature was ini-

tially atheoretical, by the time of McKee-Ryan & Harvey’s (2011) review, a richer body of theory
about underemployment had emerged. These authors described four theoretical perspectives that
inform underemployment research. The human capital perspective examines how and why in-
dividuals invest in their own human capital (education, training, etc.) as well as the ideas that
organizations evaluate human capital in their employment decisions and that the employment
market reflects a fit between an employee’s human capital and the demands of the job. Person–Job
Fit Theory characterizes underemployment as a lack of fit between employees’ knowledge, skills,
and abilities on one hand and their job demands on the other. Research in this area shows that a
lack of fit is stressful and leads to a variety of negative outcomes for employees. Relative Depri-
vation Theory focuses on the idea that underemployment involves comparisons of one’s current
job characteristics to those of past jobs the individual has held or to others in one’s occupational/

www.annualreviews.org • Economic Stress and Occupational Health 427

 educational cohort, with unfavorable comparisons leading to adverse outcomes for the employee.
Finally, Control and Coping Theory focuses on the idea that underemployment creates a state of
disequilibrium for workers that must be resolved by finding an acceptable position.

Selected underemployment research. McKee-Ryan & Harvey (2011) reviewed research on

the nature, antecedents, and consequences of underemployment, which by then had become
extensive, although with many mixed findings about its antecedents and outcomes. They ex-
plained that, in addition to Feldman’s original five components, other research had investigated
work–status congruence, perceived overqualification, and relative deprivation as additional com-
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ponents of underemployment. They also highlighted that research has focused on some of
Feldman’s (1996) dimensions (e.g., overqualification) much more than others (e.g., involuntary
part-time employment, downward wage mobility). They further emphasized the continued use
of both objective and subjective measures, although most current research relies on self-reported
methods.
Research on underemployment continues unabated today. Most studies focus on the idea of
perceived overqualification, which Erdogan & Bauer (2020) reviewed in an earlier volume of this
journal. They emphasized that most research still focuses on individuals’ self-perceptions of their
qualifications relative to their job demands and that other measurement approaches (e.g., objec-
tive, other-rated) are not interchangeable. While acknowledging that much literature continues
to develop predictions about underemployment based on the demotivating effects of relative de-
privation and person–job misfit, they noted that other scholars emphasize the potential benefits
of believing one has superior skills and qualifications (e.g., increased self-efficacy and citizenship
behavior; Zhang et al. 2022).
While various demographic, personality, relational, and job characteristics act as antecedents
of overqualification, much more research has focused on its outcomes, including job attitudes,
well-being, turnover intentions/turnover, job performance, organizational citizenship behavior,
counterproductive behavior, and career success (Erdogan & Bauer 2020). Erdogan & Bauer
also identified several personal, relational, job-related, and organizational moderators of these
relationships, indicating that overqualification outcomes differ across individuals and contexts.
Note that the overqualification literature does not fully represent the literature on under-
employment. Time-based underemployment, such as involuntary part-time work, is a growing
concern that tends to be concentrated in lower-income, minority populations working in service
industries (Kim & Golden 2022). Income-based underemployment, such as a downward trajec-
tory in one’s wages, also requires further attention in OP/OB research. As underemployment is
increasingly recognized as an important element of decent work and human rights movements
more broadly (Blustein et al. 2019), greater contributions to this movement from OP/OB would
be valuable.

Job Insecurity
Job insecurity reflects a perceived threat to the stability and continuance of one’s job (Shoss 2017).
While some research focuses on the global nature of insecurity (i.e., overall uncertainty about the
future of one’s job), other work (e.g., Hellgren et al. 1999) intentionally distinguishes between
a threat to one’s job in its entirety (i.e., quantitative job insecurity) and the potential loss of job
features (i.e., qualitative job insecurity). Conceptual and empirical distinctions have also been made
between cognitive and affective job insecurity ( Jiang & Lavaysse 2018), where the former refers
to perceptions of instability or risk and the latter encompasses one’s affective evaluations of that
risk. Despite this diversity in conceptual and operational definitions, job insecurity research has
typically shared common theoretical underpinnings.

428 Sinclair • Graham • Probst

 Theorized effects of job insecurity. In her review of the literature, Shoss (2017) identified sev-
eral theoretical lenses through which researchers have investigated job insecurity’s impact on a
variety of work, health, and well-being outcomes. First, job insecurity can be viewed as a stres-
sor threatening one’s resources (Hobfoll 1989), latent and manifest benefits associated with work
( Jahoda 1982), work-related “vitamins” (Warr 1987), and fundamental psychological needs (Deci
& Ryan 2000). Within the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (Lazarus & Folkman 1984),
cognitive job insecurity could be viewed as the primary appraisal of a potential threat, whereas
affective job insecurity occurs during the secondary appraisal process.
Another theoretical approach draws from Social Exchange Theory (Cropanzano & Mitchell
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2005). From this perspective, the perception of job insecurity can prompt an assessment of an
imbalance in the interdependent transactions between an employee and their organization. As a
result of violations of their psychological contract, individuals experiencing job insecurity may
correspondingly withdraw their time, talent, and efforts from the organization. Thus, research
relying on Social Exchange Theory often focuses on behavioral work-related outcomes such as
turnover intentions (Lee & Jeong 2017) and in-role and extrarole performance (e.g., Fischmann
et al. 2018).
A smaller stream of research has focused on the potential job preservation motivation effects
of job insecurity as employees act in ways that they think will increase their chances of retaining
their threatened job or valued job features. Such actions can include undermining fellow cowork-
ers (Schwebel 1997), increasing in-role and extrarole performance (e.g., Koen et al. 2019, Shoss
et al. 2023), or focusing on aspects of performance believed to be valued by the organization (e.g.,
productivity versus safety; Byrd et al. 2018).
In a textual statistics analysis of the past four decades of job insecurity research (Bazzoli &
Probst 2023), the stressor perspective and the social exchange perspective emerged as the two
dominant theoretical foundations. Nevertheless, a small cluster of studies revealed a growing lit-
erature on the positive motivational aspects of job insecurity, suggesting that further research is
needed to understand the conditions under which job insecurity leads to harmful versus potentially
beneficial outcomes.

Selected job insecurity research. Early seminal meta-analyses (e.g., Sverke et al. 2002) focused
on synthesizing the nascent body of literature finding consistent adverse effects of job insecurity on
employee physical and mental health, as well as work-related outcomes including job satisfaction,
organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and job involvement. However, the exponential
growth in research on the outcomes of job insecurity has allowed recent meta-analyses to explore
more-nuanced hypotheses. For example, in their meta-analysis, Jiang & Lavaysse (2018) evaluated
the conceptual distinction between cognitive and affective job insecurity, finding that affective
insecurity is typically a stronger predictor of negative outcomes and concluding that it likely acts as
a mediator between cognitive job insecurity and most outcomes. This research raises the important
question of identifying moderating variables that can explain for which individuals and under
what circumstances the perception of job insecurity will result in negative affective reactions and
subsequent downstream adverse health, well-being, and work-related outcomes.
Sverke et al. (2019) meta-analytically examined relationships between job insecurity and in-
role, extrarole, counterproductive, creative, and safety performance, with job insecurity generally
being adversely associated with performance. While these results largely held regardless of cross-
sectional versus longitudinal study design, the association with in-role performance was stronger
within cross-sectional designs and nonsignificant among studies using a longitudinal design. The
authors speculated that job insecurity may have short-term negative effects on in-role performance
due to the strain involved, but that job preservation motivations may account for a diminishing of
that relationship over the long term.
www.annualreviews.org • Economic Stress and Occupational Health 429
 Extending these findings, a recent meta-analysis by Jiang et al. (2022) challenged the prevalent
assumption that associations with job insecurity are monotonic. Despite seemingly competing
premises derived from the social exchange and the job preservation motivation perspectives, these
authors found that previously observed contradictory findings might be explained by underlying
curvilinear relationships between job insecurity and work-related behaviors. By integrating these
two perspectives, they identified inflection points at which the adverse effects of job insecurity on
work behaviors turn positive, that is, the point at which reciprocity motivations may yield to job
preservation motivations.
Other meta-analyses from occupational medicine confirm the detrimental effects of job insecu-
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rity on employee physical and mental health. For example, Virtanen et al. (2013) found an elevated
risk of coronary heart disease among individuals classified as high in job insecurity compared with
their secure counterparts, although this effect was somewhat attenuated after accounting for so-
cioeconomic status and other risk factors. Kim & von dem Knesebeck (2015) compared the risk
of developing depressive symptoms as a function of experiencing unemployment or job insecurity.
Interestingly, while exposure to both economic stressors increased this risk, the odds ratio for in-
secure employment (1.29) was slightly higher than for unemployment (1.19). Moreover, the effect
of job insecurity increased with longer time lags, highlighting the adverse effects of chronic job
insecurity.

Financial Deprivation
Financial deprivation encompasses objective and income-related economic stressors such as wages,
household income, relative income rank, wealth, financial obligations, and debt. We distinguish
financial deprivation from the related topic of pay satisfaction, which has received a good deal
of prior scholarly attention, such as in relation to job attitudes ( Judge et al. 2010). Researchers
have studied both current and past experiences of financial deprivation, such as looking at income
in previous occupations and even parent/guardian socioeconomic standing in childhood. While
related to social class, financial deprivation is narrower in scope, focusing exclusively on finances
rather than other objective indicators of rank such as education or occupational prestige (e.g.,
Côté 2011). Furthermore, distinguishing between objective and subjective components is essen-
tial to understanding economic stress as a multidimensional process. For instance, two individuals
with equivalent objective financial situations may have very different perceptions of economic
stress. Understanding the importance of these distinctions opens the door for theorizing regard-
ing the underlying causes of these differences—which could range from variations in economic
context to individual differences in personality or personal history (Côté et al. 2021, Probst et al.
2018).
Additionally, when using objective measures of financial deprivation, it is important to account
for both resources and demands. For example, absolute income measures do not differentiate be-
tween individuals with different levels of demands (dependents, debt, etc.) or additional resources.
Sinclair & Cheung (2016) discuss several ways that financial deprivation has been measured in
work-related scholarship, noting that, aside from research focusing on well-being, there is insuffi-
cient evidence to draw strong conclusions regarding the relationship between financial deprivation
and many OP/OB outcomes. To date, this largely remains the case despite calls for additional ob-
jective and subjective economic stress research and recent advances in theory (e.g., Kish-Gephart
et al. 2023, Leana et al. 2012, Martin & Côté 2019). As such, researchers need to be specific about
the time frame they are concerned with, conduct more longitudinal research, utilize more socioe-
conomically diverse populations, and use both direct and multidimensional measures of financial
deprivation (Sinclair & Cheung 2016).

430 Sinclair • Graham • Probst

 Theorized effects of financial deprivation. As discussed in the section titled Unemployment,
Agency Restriction Theory (Fryer 1986) highlights the idea that a loss of or lack of financial re-
sources leads to adverse health outcomes by limiting one’s capacity for self-directedness, thereby
producing distress. More contemporary resource-based stress models expand on this notion, treat-
ing money as a valued resource. According to Conservation of Resources Theory (Hobfoll 1989),
actual or threatened loss of resources such as money creates distress, leading to poor outcomes
(e.g., strain). Bakker & Demerouti’s (2017) Job Demands–Resources Model further predicts that
because financial deprivation reflects low resources, it should be associated with lower work
motivation and should intensify the relationship between job demands and job strain. Finally,
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behavioral economics research on Scarcity Theory (Mullainathan & Shafir 2013) describes how
resource scarcity affects behavioral decision-making processes (e.g., recent research links greater
financial insecurity to enactment of fewer COVID-19 prevention behaviors; Probst et al. 2020).
Scarcity Theory helps explain why individuals tend to remain in poverty—behaving seemingly
irrationally at times by overborrowing and making costly trade-offs (e.g., deciding to ignore main-
tenance; Meuris & Leana 2015). When resources (e.g., money) are scarce, workers allocate more
of their resources (e.g., time, money, attention) to contend with current deprivation and experi-
ence “tunneling,” as they lack the bandwidth to attend to longer-term solutions to their current
economic struggles. This so-called scarcity trap operates as a cyclical process, as difficulty in fu-
ture planning makes it more challenging to escape poverty (Mullainathan & Shafir 2013). Meuris
& Leana (2015) provide an extensive review of the scarcity literature, explaining how scarcity
might lead to differences in outcomes such as job performance, burnout, withdrawal, workplace
safety, and knowledge attainment. Although some OP/OB research has begun to apply Scarcity
Theory (e.g., Sayre 2023, Wang & Ford 2020), it deserves greater attention in economic stress
scholarship.

Selected financial deprivation research. An extensive body of research links poverty to health
and well-being outcomes such as addiction, mental illness, violence, residential instability, poor
health, and unsafe neighborhoods (Desmond & Western 2018). Financial deprivation has also
been related to work-related outcomes, such as work–family conflict (Ford 2011), absenteeism
(Kim & Garman 2003), and job attitudes (Loignon & Woehr 2018). Research also has begun to
consider other the role of objective financial variables, such as debt, in work outcomes (Black et al.
2022, Froidevaux et al. 2020).
OP/OB scholars have increasingly recognized the role of past financial deprivation in both
health and well-being as well as work-related outcomes. For example, studies have examined the
critical impact of deprivation in childhood on adult outcomes (Côté et al. 2021). Research on social
class origins recognizes both the past and present as important aspects of one’s social class (Côté
2022). Financial deprivation research focusing on childhood is rich and abundant in sociology
and developmental psychology, but it appears much less frequently in the organizational sciences.
Nevertheless, this budding scholarship has great potential to contribute to organizational research.
The Family Stress Model provides theoretical insight into how childhood financial depriva-
tion (e.g., poverty) exerts effects in adulthood (Elder et al. 1985). According to this model, the
strain impoverished families experience as they face financial difficulties extends into relational
and parenting difficulties, thereby affecting children’s stress responses and development. The con-
sequences of poverty are evident in scholastic achievement, in child behavior and mental health,
and in numerous adulthood outcomes—including those at work (Duncan et al. 2017). However,
some researchers have also identified positive correlates of poverty. For example, Côté (2022) sug-
gested that lower-class individuals may be better able to cope with environmental uncertainty by
relying on supportive networks and limiting risk.

www.annualreviews.org • Economic Stress and Occupational Health 431

 Individuals with a more affluent history tend to fare better on the job market because they are
perceived as more intelligent and socioemotionally skilled (Sharps & Anderson 2021) and have
higher job search self-efficacy and perceived social support (DeOrtentiis et al. 2022). Even when
they are upwardly mobile, lower-class workers may face challenges integrating into workplace cul-
ture and connecting with their coworkers and superiors (Martin & Côté 2019). Côté (2022) also
highlighted that those who transition from lower- to upper-class standing may simultaneously
be admired by others for their transition and feel a heightened sense of self-efficacy about their
advancement, while also feeling alienated from their original background. This body of scholar-
ship suggests a continued need for OP/OB scholarship examining both past and present financial
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deprivation and the unique effects of transitioning into or out of deprivation states.

Financial Stress
Financial stress involves subjective perceptions about one’s financial situation. Researchers have
used numerous terms to refer to financial stress, including financial strain, lifestyle deprivation,
perceived income adequacy/inadequacy, financial capability, financial hardship, financial fragility,
economic pressure, subjective socioeconomic status, financial (in)security, economic distress, and
economic vulnerability. Studies of financial stress and health number in the hundreds to thousands,
depending on what search terms are used, and a full review of that literature is well beyond our
scope. Instead, we discuss what we see as key measurement and theoretical distinctions in financial
stress research specifically with organizational implications.
Sinclair & Cheung (2016) discussed four overarching distinctions between subjective financial
stress measures. First, they distinguished between (a) financial stressors as the cognitive evaluation
of one’s financial situation and (b) financial strain as affective responses to one’s financial situation,
with the former presumably a causal antecedent to the latter. Consistent with this idea, research
has shown that financial strain mediates the relationship of objective economic stressors with out-
comes such as organizational commitment, work–family conflict, and turnover intentions (e.g.,
Black et al. 2022). Second, Sinclair & Cheung (2016) pointed out that subjective measures may
have an absolute standard as a referent or focus on social comparisons. As we discuss below, this
observation highlights the important role that comparison to others plays in one’s assessment of
one’s financial situation.
Third, subjective measures may capture either financial needs (i.e., meeting basic life expenses
such as rent and utilities) or financial wants (i.e., achieving more aspirational lifestyle goals).
Sinclair & Cheung (2016) noted that some authors argue that measures of the ability to afford
desired or nonessential items may be a superior measure of financial stress in developed nations.
They also emphasized that subjective financial stress measures may differ in terms of temporal
orientation—they may ask someone about how they compare with their own past situation, about
their perceptions of their present situation, or about their expectations about the future. Past per-
ceptions are useful in subjective social status research, and future expectations may be especially
important in financial planning interventions. All these distinctions highlight the need for com-
prehensive assessment strategies and the need to be intentional in choosing measures that best fit
the goals of a particular study.

Theorized effects of financial stress. Given that financial stressors reflect subjective appraisals
about one’s financial situation, it is perhaps not surprising that researchers have invoked Lazarus
& Folkman’s (1984) Cognitive Transactional Model to account for their effects. Similar to our dis-
cussion of job insecurity, financial stressors may be viewed as a cognitive appraisal of one’s financial
situation, whereas financial strain would reflect negative affective reactions to those cognitive ap-
praisals (Sinclair & Cheung 2016). This approach is consistent with a wide array of occupational

432 Sinclair • Graham • Probst

 health literature regarding the theorized effects of subjective stressors. As discussed in the section
titled Financial Deprivation, resource-based stress theories such as Conservation of Resources
Theory and Scarcity Theory may be used to explain the expected effects of subjective financial
stressors. Integrating these resource theories with Lazarus & Folkman’s (1984) Cognitive Trans-
actional Model suggests that financial deprivation predicts cognitive appraisals of financial stress
that subsequently lead to adverse health outcomes, in part through their influence on affective
financial strain.
Social Exchange Theory discusses the importance of reciprocity in organizational behavior
(Cropanzano & Mitchell 2005). Because one’s compensation is determined by one’s occupation/
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organization, employees may engage in less desirable organizational behavior in response to fi-
nancial stress. For example, research on the construct of perceived organization support (Kurtessis
et al. 2017) shows that employees who believe their organization cares about their well-being
have more favorable job attitudes and well-being and are more likely to engage in desirable
forms of organizational behavior (e.g., organizational citizenship behavior, less turnover). Fair
treatment by one’s organization (including pay/rewards) is an important antecedent of perceived
organizational support, and it stands to reason that employees’ financial stress may be associated
with lower perceptions of their organization’s concern for their well-being.
The construct of subjective social status closely resembles financial stress and offers addi-
tional theoretical insights related to subjective financial stress. Hoebel & Lampert (2020) discussed
multiple theoretical mechanisms linking subjective social status to health, including (a) social psy-
chological explanations such as relative deprivation and (b) neurobiological mechanisms such as
differences in sympathetic nervous system function, autoimmune responses, and even brain struc-
ture. They also point out the need to consider feedback processes in that poor health outcomes
(e.g., obesity) can reinforce both objective and subjective social status.
Social comparison explanations assume that people’s perceptions about their financial situ-
ation are grounded in how they believe themselves to compare with various social referents.
Loignon & Woehr (2018) distinguished social comparison from social identity processes as as-
pects of subjective social status, pointing out that subjective social class identity serves as a filter
for interpreting environmental events. Côté (2022) discussed the notion of social class as a multi-
dimensional construct composed of distinct subjective and objective components, highlighting the
need for more-sophisticated measurement of class and the consideration of interactions among
class dimensions.

Selected financial stress research. On one hand, the financial stress literature is quite large.
Many studies have investigated various operationalizations of subjective financial stressors, using
a wide variety of terminology. This literature consistently shows that financial stress is associated
with a wide array of health outcomes. In fact, a recent search of the various terms listed in the
introduction to the Financial Stress section above (financial hardship, financial strain, financial
fragility, etc.) along with the word health yielded from several hundred to more than a thousand
citations to academic journals (depending on what other restrictions were applied); the general
trend in this literature is that financial stress is clearly associated with poor physical and psycho-
logical health outcomes. Much of this research does not explicitly focus on employee populations,
although most of it does focus on adults who are typically working. Research on work-specific
outcomes is sparse, although studies have linked financial stress to outcomes such as increased
absenteeism and decreased organizational commitment (Kim & Garman 2003), motivational chal-
lenges (Wang & Ford 2020), decreased job satisfaction and increased burnout (Munyon et al.
2020), increased work–family conflict (Lawrence et al. 2013), and increased turnover (Adams et al.
2019).

www.annualreviews.org • Economic Stress and Occupational Health 433

 Regarding antecedents or correlates of financial stress, research has identified a host of con-
tributing factors at both micro and macro levels. For example, a review of financial hardship
literature by Frankham et al. (2020) discusses four categories of psychological variables related
to financial hardship: personal agency (e.g., locus of control), self-esteem, coping (e.g., resilience),
and personality traits (e.g., neuroticism). Other literature focuses on a wide range of economic
(French & Vigne 2019), family (Friedline et al. 2021), and medical (Sharp et al. 2013) factors
that contribute to financial stress. OP/OB literature generally does not focus on antecedents of
financial stress, aside from the strong role of unemployment (Gedikli et al. 2022) and individual
differences such as negative affectivity (Munyon et al. 2020).
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Although financial stress has important implications for OP/OB scholarship, differences in the
operationalization of financial stress and the terminology used to describe it represent consid-
erable barriers to knowledge advancement. Construct overproliferation in this field represents a
good example of the jingle and jangle fallacies (Block 1995). Block described the jingle fallacy as the
use of similar terms to describe multiple ideas and the jangle fallacy as the use of multiple terms
to describe similar ideas. The solution to this problem is careful attention to construct validity
concerns, a needed gap in financial stress research. We also encourage researchers to test multiple
competing theoretical explanations for observed financial stress effects, particularly through di-
rect measurement of theoretical mechanisms using designs that afford stronger causal inference,
such as experience sampling methods.

MULTILEVEL CONSIDERATIONS: AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

Conceptual, methodological, and practical reasons warrant a multilevel perspective when investi-
gating the causes and consequences of economic stressors. Conceptually, numerous theories (e.g.,
General System Theory; von Bertalanffy 1968) explicitly posit that individual behavior is best ex-
plained, and in part driven, by interactions between individuals and the multiple systems in which
they are embedded. Methodologically, failure to correctly conceptualize and operationalize vari-
ables at the appropriate level risks model misspecification due to atomistic and ecological fallacies.
Practically, while OP/OB researchers are often interested primarily in individual-level behavior
and outcomes, many of the causes, moderators, and potential interventions related to economic
stressors occur at levels other than the individual (i.e., the organizational, industry, occupation,
macroeconomic, and/or sociocultural levels). Recognizing that workers are embedded within so-
ciocultural, economic, and organizational contexts that may vary along numerous dimensions that
potentially affect the extent to which such workers are exposed to economic stressors, the avail-
ability of resources to cope with economic stressors, and the subsequent health and well-being
outcomes of such stressors, a growing body of literature has been devoted to evaluating a variety
of contextual variables at the national, regional, and organizational levels.

National Contextual Variables

A small but steadily growing body of research has examined how the national and regional context
of economic stress influences reactions to economic stressors. Broadly speaking, this research has
examined four classes of contextual features: (a) economic conditions, (b) social safety net and labor
market policies, (c) national culture (e.g., values), and (d) regional factors.

Economic conditions. In one of the earliest multilevel studies incorporating macroeconomic

conditions, Carr et al. (2011) found that the adverse impact of job insecurity on life satisfaction
was exacerbated when the country’s GDP was lower, its unemployment rate was higher, and fewer
inhabitants were satisfied with the state of the economy. Similarly, Jiang & Probst (2017) found

434 Sinclair • Graham • Probst

 that job insecurity was more strongly associated with job burnout for workers in countries with
higher income inequality. Individual-level reactions to job insecurity may be compounded when
the state of the economy is worse or when income inequality is greater, potentially because the
threat of job loss in such contexts portends more societal distributive injustice and more difficult
prospects for reemployment in the event of job loss.
Interestingly, recent research indicates that these contextual effects differ when examining in-
dividuals who have actually experienced unemployment as opposed to those who have fears of job
loss (i.e., job insecurity). Using data from more than 200,000 respondents to the European Social
Survey nested within 37 countries, Azzollini (2023) found that the effects of unemployment on
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diminished social trust were completely attenuated under conditions of high country-level rates of
unemployment. In other words, when larger proportions of individuals around the focal respon-
dents were experiencing unemployment, those individual experiences of unemployment were less
related to social trust perceptions. Such findings comport with other economic stress research
suggesting relative deprivation mechanisms (e.g., Jiang et al. 2014), in which individuals interpret
their current situation in light of situational, status, and other comparisons.

Social safety net and labor market policies. In addition to economic conditions coloring one’s
experience of and reactions to economic stressors, research suggests that a country’s labor market
policies and social safety net affect employee reactions. Drawing upon data from 15,200 individuals
nested within 24 countries, Debus et al. (2012) found that the negative relationships among job
insecurity, job satisfaction, and affective commitment were attenuated among individuals living in
countries with more robust social safety nets (as measured by the generosity of unemployment
benefits, government investment in worker retraining programs, etc.). These findings comport
with additional analyses using European data (Probst & Jiang 2017) which found that country-
level flexicurity policies (i.e., policies that seek to grant organizational flexibility while ensuring
employment security for workers) attenuated individual-level relationships between job insecurity
and reported job stress.
Examining the economic stressor of unemployment and its consequences for future under-
employment, Otto & Lukac (2021) found that more generous unemployment benefits coupled
with active labor market policies (e.g., investment in training opportunities) resulted in indi-
viduals eventually transitioning into positions where they were less likely to be underemployed
and more likely to have higher income. Thus, when gaining reemployment, previously unem-
ployed individuals living in countries with a stronger social safety net were more likely to obtain
permanent, full-time jobs with standard working hours and higher wages compared with their
counterparts in countries with less generous unemployment benefits and fewer active labor market
policies.

National culture. Cultural values also appear to shape reactions to economic stressors. Work-
ing in countries with (a) high enacted uncertainty avoidance, (b) high egalitarianism, or (c) low
power distance appears to buffer the negative relationships between employee job insecurity and
job satisfaction, affective commitment, and pay satisfaction (Debus et al. 2012, Xu et al. 2023).
Interestingly, Xu et al. (2023) also found that the negative impact of job insecurity was stronger
in countries with higher national corruption indices. These findings comport with earlier results
on income inequality and perhaps are not surprising, given that such inequality could arguably
result from greater societal acceptance of power distance, rejection of egalitarianism, and corrup-
tion that skews the distribution of resources (Gupta et al. 2002, Judge et al. 2011). Finally, while
most research has focused on how national-level contextual variables affect reactions to economic
stressors, recent meta-analytic research ( Jiang et al. 2021) indicates that variables such as indi-
vidualism, GDP, egalitarianism, power distance, unemployment rates, and income inequality can

www.annualreviews.org • Economic Stress and Occupational Health 435

 moderate the relationships between resource- and demand-based antecedents and reported levels
of job insecurity.

Regional contextual variables. Many of the national contextual variables have been examined at
meso-regional levels with similar cross-level main and interaction effects. For example, regional
unemployment and poverty levels appear to act as distal determinants of individual-level outcomes
such as mortality risk (Osler et al. 2003) and depression (Muntaner et al. 2006). Additionally, there
is growing evidence that regional microsocioeconomic indicators may variably act to moderate
the effects of economic stressors on behavioral, health, and work-related outcomes. For example,
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Otto et al. (2016) found that the impact of GDP growth and regional unemployment rates on the
relationships between job insecurity and career satisfaction, occupational commitment, and job
involvement differed as a function of whether qualitative versus quantitative job insecurity was
the focal variable.
Probst et al. (2020) examined the effects of job and financial insecurity on COVID-19 pre-
vention behaviors in light of state-level pandemic-related restrictions on business operations and
generosity of state unemployment benefits. While a robust social safety net attenuated the nega-
tive relationship between job insecurity and COVID-19 prevention behaviors, living in a state that
had enacted more pandemic restrictions exacerbated the negative relationship between financial
insecurity and prevention behaviors. Thus, a governmental policy such as unemployment benefits
might act to alleviate the stress of potential job loss but not the stress associated with financial
insecurity. Similarly, governmental policies (e.g., COVID-19 restrictions) that were presumably
meant to prevent COVID-19 transmission for all appeared to be beneficial primarily to those with
more financial security.
Probst et al. (2018) similarly found contrasting effects between income- and employment-
related sources of economic stress. In their examination of the role of county-level population
health determinants in predicting employee well-being, they found that a positive population
health context significantly attenuated the negative relationship between income-related stres-
sors and well-being but exacerbated the relationship between employment-related stressors and
well-being. They argued that these findings might be explained in part by the differing visibility
of income- versus employment-related economic stressors, such that those experiencing financial
stress could benefit from the more positive county-level population health context without the
visibility often associated with employment-related stressors (e.g., job loss).

Organizational and Work Group Contextual Variables

In addition to cultural and contextual variables, multilevel economic stress research has examined
qualities of organizations as possible contextual variables influencing the relationship between eco-
nomic stressors and outcomes. Two sets of variables have received attention from organizational
researchers: (a) organizational climate and (b) human resource policies and practices/corporate
performance.

Organizational climate. Understandably, OP/OB research has focused most heavily on contex-
tual variables operating at the organizational and work group levels, with a particular emphasis on
the effects of shared subjective perceptions of organizational policies, practices, and norms (e.g.,
organizational climate; James & Jones 1974). Comporting with national-level contextual variables
highlighting the adverse effects of corruption and income inequality, Sora et al. (2010) found that
a positive organizational justice climate attenuated the relationships among individual-level job
insecurity, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Similarly, working in organizations character-
ized by a positive social support climate (Sora et al. 2011) and a positive socio-moral climate (as

436 Sinclair • Graham • Probst

 evidenced by mutual respect, empathy, and trust; Sora et al. 2021) attenuated the otherwise adverse
impact of job insecurity on job satisfaction, psychological well-being, and intentions to quit.
Most organizational climate economic stress research has focused on the impact of job in-
security climate (e.g., shared perceptions of unstable or at-risk employment), where research
consistently indicates deleterious effects above and beyond the impacts of individually held job
insecurity on job-related outcomes such as job satisfaction, work engagement, and commitment
(e.g., Sora et al. 2009); self-rated health and burnout (Låstad et al. 2018); and workplace safety
(e.g., injuries, compliance, and reporting; Jiang & Probst 2016). In addition to these direct effects,
working in a climate of job insecurity exacerbates the effects of individual-level job insecurity (e.g.,
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Jiang & Probst 2016). A climate of job insecurity can also undercut otherwise beneficial effects of
leader–member exchange on organizational citizenship behaviors (Nikolova et al. 2018).
Human resource practices and corporate performance. While most OP/OB research has fo-
cused on subjective climate perceptions as organizational-level contextual variables, some studies
have assessed the impact of objective corporate performance on economic stressors and result-
ing employee outcomes. For example, Debus et al. (2014) found that employees in companies that
were assessed by an independent credit rating bureau as “more likely to fail” reported higher levels
of job insecurity, indicating a relationship between corporate financial strain and employee inse-
curity perceptions. Similar findings have been identified on the basis of forecasts regarding future
occupational growth versus decline from the Occupational Outlook Handbook ( Jiang et al. 2013).
Human resource and organizational practices can also affect employee experiences of eco-
nomic stressors. For example, drawing upon data from ∼3,400 employees at nearly 600 companies,
Raeder et al. (2019) found that employees reported higher job insecurity when working in organi-
zations with corporate practices involving international collaboration (e.g., foreign customers or
suppliers) and emphasizing numerical employment flexibility (e.g., policies that enable easier em-
ployee recruitment, dismissal, and adjustments of working hours). On the positive side, employees
experiencing time-based underemployment appear less likely to quit when working in companies
with “promote from within” policies (Wang 2018).

ECONOMIC STRESS INTERVENTIONS

Because it involves structural issues that transcend a person’s job or even their organization, ad-
dressing economic stress concerns requires a multidisciplinary approach that integrates behavioral
science with organizational and community-focused strategies. Drawing from the public health
literature, Sinclair et al. (2010) described a matrix of potential primary, secondary, and tertiary
economic stress interventions targeting two potential beneficiaries (individual employees and the
organization) as well as two distinct agents of intervention (the organization via its policies and
practices and the local/federal government via social policy). Table 1 adapts that original in-
tervention matrix to include more recent examples and posits a third potential beneficiary: the
community. We assume that interventions at each of these levels can benefit occupational health
through their downstream impacts on the various economic stressors discussed above. An im-
portant caveat—given the multilevel studies reviewed above offering evidence of the effects of
country-level differences in social policy—is that our discussion of interventions is mostly limited
to the US context.

Primary Prevention Interventions

Primary prevention interventions focus on helping people and organizations avoid the harm of
economic stressors before they occur. Financial education and planning programs are the classic
example of individually focused intervention, as they develop employees’ financial knowledge and

www.annualreviews.org • Economic Stress and Occupational Health 437

 Table 1 A framework of economic stress interventions
Prevention focus Beneficiary Examples
Primary goal: promote Individual Financial education/literacy
employment and financial Financial planning programs
health Compensation and benefits
Universal basic income
Retirement programs
Minimum wage legislation
COVID-19 stimulus checks
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Organization Small business loans

Community Community action programs
Business incubators
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health program
Secondary goal: enable Individual Employee assistance programs
coping for those at risk Realistic merger/downsizing previews
for economic stressors Technology-induced job insecurity training
Compensation/benefits changes
Organization Economic incentives to support troubled industries
Employee furloughs
Downsizing/restructuring
COVID-19 loan/grant programs
Community Community action programs
Tertiary goal: restore Individual College loan forgiveness
economic health of those Outplacement programs
who have been damaged; Unemployment benefits
prevent further damage Financial counseling
Dislocated worker programs
Temporary assistance for needy families programs
Organization Bailout programs
COVID-19 loan forgiveness
Community Community revitalization programs

skills in the hopes of changing their financial behavior. Such interventions continue to be the
subject of many studies, albeit with mixed findings about their effectiveness (Walstad et al. 2017).
Other examples of individual-focused primary prevention strategies include automatic enroll-
ment in retirement programs and, more recently, COVID-19 stimulus checks paid to American
families (US Dep. Treas. 2021). In most cases, there is little empirical evidence about the impact
of these programs on employee-related outcomes. One exception is research on minimum wage
changes; some research concludes that such increases are associated with increases in worker pro-
ductivity and retention, although also with lower profits (Coviello et al. 2022). Yu et al. (2021)
concluded that minimum wage increases should be accompanied by other policies that disincen-
tivize employer practices such as hiring more part-time workers. As an alternative to minimum
wage legislation, universal basic income programs have generated widespread interest, including
in OP/OB (Hüffmeier & Zacher 2021).
Several organizational- and community-level economic programs could be viewed as con-
tributing to primary prevention of economic stress. For example, the US Government offers Small
Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer grants to help stimulate
research and development in small businesses. Similarly, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964
created the Community Action Partnership (see https://communityactionpartnership.com),

438 Sinclair • Graham • Probst

 which provides training and technical assistance to communities with the goal of combating
poverty. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (see https://www.rwjf.org) also offers grant
support to communities seeking to improve community health and has a Culture of Health Prize
that recognizes successful community partnerships.

Secondary Prevention Interventions

Secondary prevention programs target employees, organizations, and communities that are cur-
rently at risk. Employee assistance programs (EAPs) typically offer a wide range of resources
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for employees experiencing occupational health–related concerns, including resources related to

managing financial demands. Although trade publications have long recognized the importance
of offering financial resources such as through EAPs (e.g., Held 2022), empirical literature about
the impact of EAPs on the consequences of economic stressors is lacking.
Some research also shows that communication and training strategies may help limit the oc-
cupational health consequences of economic change. For example, in a rare field experiment,
Schweiger & DeNisi (1991) found that employees who received realistic communications about
the consequences of an impending merger reported better job attitudes, more-favorable per-
ceptions of their employer, and better self-reported performance. Similarly, Lee et al. (2022)
demonstrated that providing employees with training to improve their technology skills helped
buffer the effects of technological change on job insecurity. Although limited, this literature
supports the need to clearly and proactively address changes driven by economic downturns.
While there are numerous other organizational- and community-level strategies to address the
impact of economic risk [e.g., alternatives to downsizing such as employee furloughs, industry-
level incentives, the US Government’s Paycheck Protection Program (see https://www.sba.gov/
funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program), and the
abovementioned Community Action Partnership], little empirical research has examined their
health- and work-related impacts, aside from research on furloughs (e.g., Grandey et al. 2021).

Tertiary Prevention Interventions

Tertiary interventions seek to restore economic health to those who have experienced harm. Vari-
ous governmental programs aim to provide a social safety net to individuals who have experienced
economic harm. For example, the US Department of Labor’s Dislocated Worker Program (see
https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/training/dislocatedworkers) aims to help workers who
have lost their jobs find new employment. Similarly, the US Department of Health and Hu-
man Services’ Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (see https://www.acf.hhs.gov/
ofa/programs/temporary-assistance-needy-families-tanf ) addresses the needs of low-income
families with children. Unemployment benefits provide workers with financial security follow-
ing job loss, and many organizations offer outplacement programs that help laid off workers
find new employment. College loan forgiveness is a hotly debated political topic in the United
States, with major economic and organizational implications depending on whether and how
it is implemented. Finally, there are many other organizational- and community-level programs
and strategies such as loan forgiveness programs (see https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/
loans/covid-19-relief-options), bailouts (e.g., for banks), and community revitalization pro-
grams. There seems to be a ripe opportunity for multidisciplinary research linking organizational-
or community-level intervention with OP/OB outcomes.
What are the implications of these interventions for OP/OB scholarship? Previous research
has identified a large menu of potential responses to economic stress concerns. The question
of how these interventions influence occupational health–related outcomes such as burnout,

www.annualreviews.org • Economic Stress and Occupational Health 439

 retention, and counterproductive work behavior generally remains unaddressed. As discussed
above, some studies have linked state-level (Probst et al. 2020) and country-level (Debus et al.
2012, Probst & Jiang 2017) differences in social policy to reactions to job insecurity and other
stressors, but many specific policies, community development initiatives, education programs, and
so forth have not been examined with respect to OP/OB concerns. We see this gap as an important
opportunity for future multidisciplinary research to investigate how broader contextual influences
relate to the experience of and reactions to economic stressors. Although we would expect such
research to reinforce the idea that efforts to address individual-, organizational-, and community-
level economic concerns should benefit stakeholders at all levels, the nature and extent of such
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effects largely remain an open question.

AN AGENDA FOR FUTURE ECONOMIC STRESS RESEARCH

There are many unanswered questions about the nature of, consequences of, and solutions to
economic stress issues. Below, we discuss what we believe to be the most pressing questions in
the economic stress literature. Based on this discussion and our review of the literature, Table 2
provides numerous specific research questions that warrant further investigation in the OP/OB
literature. We elaborate on some of these questions below.

Is Economic Stress Research Too WEIRD and Too POSH?

As with many areas of OP/OB research, economic stress research samples are often composed of
some types of workers to the exclusion of others. Henrich et al. (2010) famously characterized
behavioral science research samples as WEIRD—composed predominantly of individuals from
Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies. Similarly, Gloss et al. (2017,
p. 239) noted that industrial/organizational psychology has a POSH perspective in that it fo-
cuses mostly on “Professionals who hold Official jobs in a formal economy and who enjoy relative
Safety from discrimination while also living in High-income countries.” They also observed the
corresponding lack of research on people who live in poverty. We note the qualitative distinction
between the working poor in Western nations and workers in non-WEIRD countries who receive
low pay, lack legal protections from discrimination, experience abuse and unsafe working condi-
tions, and work in the informal economy. As little as we know about the working poor in WEIRD
countries, we know even less about those in developing nations.
Although some studies have found differences in predictor outcome relationships for those
with lower versus higher incomes (e.g., Ford 2011), relatively little research has examined such
differences. Leana et al. (2012) note that poverty exerts individual, structural, and relational effects
on one’s life; they discuss potential effects of poverty on career attainment, job performance, and
retention and describe various mediators of these relationships. They also point out the need
to distinguish workers’ past experiences of poverty from their present situation, noting that, for
example, low-income workers on a downward income trajectory over time may differ from those
with a history of poverty or from middle/upper-income workers with a history of poverty.

Economic Stress Inequities

Future research needs to address disparities in the distribution, access, and quality of socioeco-
nomic resources such as education, income, and employment and their subsequent outcomes. In
the United States, Blacks and Hispanics are more than twice as likely as Whites and Asians to be
among the working poor, and women are more likely than men (BLS 2022). Furthermore, mortal-
ity rates due to drug overdoses, alcohol consumption, and mental illness—termed deaths of despair
(Case & Deaton 2020), particularly among lower-educated and marginalized groups—have been

440 Sinclair • Graham • Probst

 Table 2 Key questions for future research
Research opportunity domain Themes, topics, and core questions
Construct development and theory
Employment-related economic How are the five aspects of underemployment related? Should they be integrated, or are they
stress distinct?
How is job insecurity experienced at the team/group level?
In what ways might occupational insecurity be distinct from individual job insecurity?
Income-related economic stress How can we advance theoretical distinctions between financial stress and financial strain and
develop measures to align with these conceptualizations?
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How can OP/OB research on subjective/objective social class be distinguished from that on
financial stress/strain?
How can we develop measures that incorporate temporal referents (i.e., past, present, future)?
Interrelatedness of economic Is there value in more-sophisticated measurement strategies that further distinguish different
stressors types of economic stressors from one another?
What are the relative contributions of different economic stress indicators?
How does economic stress overlap with the constructs of precarious work and economic
precarity?
Antecedents of economic stress
Individual differences What individual differences influence the subjective experience of economic stress?
Organizational antecedents How might organizations influence economic stress in their surrounding communities?
How might organizations restructure in such a way to minimize economic stress?
Societal antecedents What societal factors may be related to underemployment—particularly aspects that have
received less attention, such as involuntary part-time work or downward wage mobility?
How does social class privilege relate to the experience of economic stress and occupational
health?
How might debt forgiveness influence economic stress and OP/OB outcomes?
Consequences of economic stress
Individual consequences How does each aspect of underemployment differentially relate to worker health and well-being?
What moderating variables explain individual differences in how perceptions of job insecurity
relate to negative affective reactions?
How do economic stressors influence workers’ willingness to join unions, participate in labor
movements, and so forth?
What is the relative impact of economic stressors and other organizational factors on retention
and turnover? For example, do economic stressors exacerbate reactions to other forms of
workplace mistreatment?
Organizational consequences How does economic inequality within an organization affect organizational success?
Under what circumstances does job insecurity lead to harmful versus potentially beneficial
organizational outcomes?
Societal consequences What are the societal implications of economic stress (e.g., growing income inequality, delayed
retirement)?
How might economic stress affect life milestones such as having children, getting married, or
obtaining higher education? How might that affect worker well-being?
Extending beyond WEIRD and POSH samples
Working poor/precarious What is the effect of poverty on career attainment, job performance, and occupational health?
workers What mediating/moderating mechanisms necessitate attention?
How might commonly studied OP/OB relationships differ for workers in the informal economy?
To what extent does extant research on economic stress apply to workers in developing and
low/middle-income countries?

(Continued)

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 Table 2 (Continued)
Research opportunity domain Themes, topics, and core questions
Intersectionality What impact does a combination of disadvantages (e.g., low pay, lack of legal protections,
discrimination, unsafe working conditions) have on workers?
How does economic stress perpetuate structural disadvantages for marginalized groups?
Economic stress inequities
Highlighting the burden of How is economic stress related to deaths of despair, and what can be done to mitigate the impact?
economic stress inequities What differences exist in work- and health-related outcomes of economic stress for women and
racial/ethnic minorities?
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How does economic stress relate to theories of social justice?

The organization as part of the In what ways can organizational policies mitigate inequalities in economic stress for workers?
solution How can corporate social responsibility programs reduce economic stress in suffering
communities?
How do organizations perpetuate societal economic inequality, and how can they minimize it?
Economic stress across the life course
A history of economic stress How might a history of parental economic stress during childhood affect adults as they enter the
workforce (e.g., vocational choice, pressure to perform, increased stress)?
How might a history of economic stress influence expectations of the future (e.g., job mobility,
stability)?
How might a history of economic stress contribute to negative stereotyping at work (e.g., stigma)?
Economic stress in midlife How do social roles influence the experience of economic stress?
How might economic stress contribute to work–family conflict or vice versa?
How does caring for aging parents or for children contribute to economic stress and work
outcomes?
Economic stress in older How are waning retirement benefits and low retirement savings affecting older workers?
workers How might periods of unemployment or job insecurity differentially affect older workers?
How might health concerns associated with aging elicit economic stress and affect the workforce
as older workers remain active for longer?
Relationships among multiple economic stressors
Relationships among economic To what extent do different economic stressors act as risk factors for one another?
stressors What occupational health differences may be present between precarious workers and other
workers?
Are there causal relationships among multiple indicators of economic stress?
How do subjective perceptions of economic stress differ from objective economic stress within
individuals (e.g., poverty versus financial stress)?
Expanding to new economic stressors
New economic stressors How do the amount and complexity of debt (student loan, medical, credit card, etc.) affect
workers?
What role should organizations play in alleviation of debt?
How does wage theft affect occupational health and well-being?
How do individual differences in retirement savings affect occupational health?
What are the occupational health implications of pay volatility?
What social/organizational policy solutions will alleviate adverse consequences of debt/low
retirement savings/wage theft/pay volatility?

Abbreviations: OP/OB, organizational psychology and organizational behavior; POSH, “Professionals who hold Official jobs in a formal economy and
who enjoy relative Safety from discrimination while also living in High-income countries” (Gloss et al. 2017, p. 239); WEIRD, Western, educated,
industrialized, rich, and democratic.

442 Sinclair • Graham • Probst

 linked to economic drivers such as unemployment and wage decline. Work- and health-related
outcomes of economic stress may be more pronounced for particularly vulnerable groups such
as women and racial/ethnic minorities (BLS 2022). As such, economic stress research has critical
implications for racial, gender, and social justice.
Investing in communities through corporate social responsibility programs may position the
organization as a positive agent of change providing benefits not only to the local community but
to the organization as well (Marquis et al. 2007). Finally, we echo recent calls in the organiza-
tional sciences to devote more attention to economic inequality (e.g., Bapuji et al. 2020). With
wages stagnating and economic inequality rising (ILO 2021), research addressing how organiza-
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tions and workers are affected by the economic context (e.g., Jiang & Probst 2017) as well as how
organizations can enact social change is vital.

Time Matters: Economic Stress Across the Life Course

Originating from the field of sociology, the life course perspective emphasizes the broader con-
text in which individual development occurs by considering societal structures, life histories (e.g.,
childhood poverty, past work experiences), and social roles (Mayer 1997). A growing body of work
in the organizational sciences (e.g., Baltes et al. 2019) has begun to acknowledge the dynamic
nature of our relationship with work and that our past histories with income- and employment-
related economic stressors can color our future expectations, interpretations of, and reactions to
presently experienced economic stressors by forming a temporal context in which individuals are
embedded.
Financial histories shape individual trajectories (e.g., Darin-Mattsson et al. 2018), and financial
needs and aspirations shift as individuals move between life stages. For instance, as benefits for re-
tirement are steadily becoming a thing of the past, workers need to adjust to defined contributions
and independent planning for their retirement years, leading many to remain in the workforce for
longer (Hardy & Reyes 2016). Career transitions or periods of unemployment can also have a
heavy impact on successful aging at work (Yoo & Lee 2016). Research that continues to explore
the interplay between economic stressors and work-related attitudes and behaviors represents a
fruitful avenue for future research uncovering how relationships may change depending on the
phase of life.
Regarding financial histories, economic stress has demonstrated its impact on children in a
variety of forms. Research has related parental job insecurity to outcomes such as financial anx-
iety (Lim & Sng 2006) and work beliefs and attitudes (Barling et al. 1998). Similarly, parental
unemployment (Isaacs 2013) and experiences of childhood financial stress (Graham 2021, Mayer
1997) have been related to several health, well-being, and job-related outcomes that extend into
adulthood.
Despite this nascent work, OP/OB research has yet to fully explore how long most effects
of economic stressors take to manifest and how long they persist. While research on economic
stressors is increasingly longitudinal in nature, the selected time frames are typically chosen out
of convenience, rather than informed by theoretical expectations regarding how the purported
temporal processes should unfold. Thus, greater attention is needed to determine such tempo-
ral framing, particularly since this information can inform the ideal window of opportunity for
interventions at the individual, organizational, and/or more macro-level contexts.

The Relationships Among Multiple Economic Stressors

Most OP/OB research on economic stressors has been siloed, focusing on one economic stres-
sor to the exclusion of other potentially co-occurring economic stressors. Yet, Conservation of

www.annualreviews.org • Economic Stress and Occupational Health 443

 Resources Theory explicitly suggests that resources travel in caravans and that losses experienced
in one domain can beget further loss in other domains. While sociological research has long
examined the intergenerational dynamics of economic deprivation and the accumulative effects
on future socioeconomic status, educational attainment, income, and employment opportunities
(e.g., Corcoran 1995), it is organizations that have direct control over many of the economic
stressors covered in this article (i.e., whether an individual is laid off, is underemployed, holds
an insecure job, or is paid low wages). Thus, OP/OB researchers need to be more proactive in
taking an integrated approach to studying the interrelationships among economic stressors, the
extent to which they act as risk factors for one another, their relative importance, and their causal
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directionality.
In support of the interconnected nature of economic stressors, Bazzoli et al. (2022) conducted
a latent profile analysis of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic to identify profiles and out-
comes of precarity, finding that 25% of respondents fell into a precarious employment profile
characterized by higher job and financial insecurity, more episodes of prior unemployment, lower
per capita household income, and greater skill- and time-based underemployment, as well as
poorer health and job attitudes. They interpreted these findings as consistent with research by
Standing (2014), who theorized the existence of “the precariat”—a group of workers who experi-
ence economic insecurity across a wide range of measures. Thus, future research might pursue a
parsimony approach by documenting occupational health differences between the precariat and
other workers. Alternately, researchers may pursue a complexity approach by investigating ques-
tions such as the value of more-sophisticated measurement strategies, relative contributions of
different indicators, or causal relationships among multiple indicators.

Expanding the Focus to New Economic Stressors

Our review has focused on unemployment, underemployment, job insecurity, financial depriva-
tion, and financial stress. Unfortunately, workers face many other economic stressors that should
be empirically examined. For example, in the United States, student loan, medical, credit card,
and other forms of debt represent substantial financial burdens that may help explain OP/OB
outcomes. Black et al. (2022) found that both debt and debt complexity (the number of sources
of debt) had indirect relationships with work attitude measures through their relationship with
financial strain. Furthermore, Froidevaux et al. (2020) found that student loan debt was associ-
ated with a lower likelihood of obtaining full-time employment after college through its impact
on financial strain and job search strain. Financial advisors distinguish between good debt and
bad debt (Charles Schwab 2022) such that, for example, mortgage and student loan debt may be
viewed as good debt in that they can enable different kinds of investments in one’s future. Thus,
future research needs to continue to investigate both the amount and the nature of debt in terms
of occupational health impact.
Another understudied financial stressor is retirement savings. According to estimates from the
Western & Southern Financial Group, the average recommended savings amount for a 55-year-
old would be $460,000, whereas the actual amount saved by those between 55 and 65 is $216,720
(WSFG 2023). As discussed above, Scarcity Theory (Mullainathan & Shafir 2013) suggests not
only that lower-income individuals would have less income but also that they would likely forgo
retirement planning in favor of focusing on immediate concerns. While the choices of lower-
income workers are likely to be especially constructed, evidence is lacking in terms of whether
there are any related impacts on organizationally relevant outcomes. The literature on work, aging,
and retirement has progressed dramatically in recent years, particularly with the publication of
the journal Work, Aging, and Retirement, but examination of the occupational health impacts of
retirement savings appears to be a persistent gap in the literature.

444 Sinclair • Graham • Probst

 Wage theft has received little attention in OP/OB, perhaps because it is experienced more
by disenfranchised groups such as women, foreign-born, and undocumented workers (Petrescu-
Prahova & Spiller 2016). According to the California Department of Industrial Relations (see
https://wagetheftisacrime.com), “Examples of wage theft include paying less than minimum
wage, not paying workers overtime, not allowing workers to take meal and rest breaks, requiring
off the clock work, or taking workers’ tips.” Although some research has documented health-
related consequences of wage theft (e.g., Negi et al. 2020), it represents yet another understudied
topic in OP/OB.
Finally, some recent research highlights pay volatility as an important occupational health con-
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cern. Organizations use variable pay to deal with fluctuations in demands, enabling employees
to earn more when demands are higher. However, for employees, this also means that a certain
percentage of their compensation is not guaranteed and often difficult to predict (e.g., tipping,
bonuses) and, thus, a potential source of stress. Although somewhat limited, research has begun to
examine how variable pay is linked to occupational outcomes. For example, Conroy et al. (2021)
showed that pay volatility in truckers (i.e., pay being a function of miles driven and pay rates) inter-
acted with pay level such that turnover was most likely for drivers with higher volatility and lower
pay. Sayre (2023) further demonstrated that pay volatility is associated with a variety of health
outcomes (physical symptoms, insomnia, sleep quality, and sleep quantity) in samples of tipped
workers; gig workers; and workers in sales, marketing, and finance. Although pay volatility ap-
pears to be an important issue for workers in a variety of occupations, we think that more research
attention is needed, particularly in lower-income occupations. For example, in the United States,
tipping seems to be increasingly used as a controversial way to increase workers’ pay, allowing em-
ployers to avoid paying living wages. Scholars must pay more attention to the occupational health
implications of such compensation strategies as well as to the costs and benefits of alternative
compensation strategies.

CONCLUSION
On one hand, economic concerns are among the most heavily studied topics in the social sciences,
with research ranging across multiple scientific disciplines. On the other, while some topics have
received considerable attention from OP/OB scholars (e.g., job insecurity, underemployment),
others require considerably more attention. For scholars, the field presents interesting challenges
related to improving economic stress measurement and integrating numerous theoretical explana-
tions for the effects of economic stressors. For practitioners, interventions to reduce the prevalence
and impact of economic stress require a multilevel, multidisciplinary approach to which OP/OB
research can productively contribute in order to help improve economic security.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
The authors are not aware of any affiliations, memberships, funding, or financial holdings that
might be perceived as affecting the objectivity of this review.

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