Primary Submission Category: Structural factors
Work in Transition: Employment Quality, Precarity, and Mental Health Among Black Emerging Adults in the San Francisco Bay Area
Authors: Sarah Andrea, Holly Nishimura, Deborah Karasek, Adrienne Mocello, Sheri Lippman, Margaret Libby, Marguerita Lightfoot,
Presenting Author: Sarah Andrea*
Employment in the US has evolved alongside a weakening social safety net, exacerbating labor market discrimination and precarious work, especially for emerging adults. However, employment quality and its health impacts remain understudied in this group. This study examines employment profiles and mental health among 300 low-income Black emerging adults (BEA; ages 18-24) participating in a guaranteed income trial in the San Francisco Bay Area. We used latent class analysis to identify clusters based on job stability, material rewards, and working-time arrangements and examine participant characteristics across these clusters. Five clusters emerged: Full-time, Consistent; Part-time, Consistent Student Workers; Piecemeal Gig Work; Underemployed Students; Minimally Attached. 27% were in the highest-quality employment group (“Full-time, Consistent”), while 31% were in the lowest-quality groups (“Piecemeal Gig Work” and “Underemployed Students”) and an additional 23% were Minimally Attached to the labor force. Even among “Full-time, Consistent”, only 7.4% earned above the city median, 14% had employer-sponsored health insurance, and 43.2% worked multiple jobs. More precarious clusters were disproportionately comprised of women, those with children, and were more likely to have participants with prior legal involvement, and greater childhood adversity. Compared with Full-time, Consistent, those in Piecemeal Gig Work had a greater number of anxiety symptoms on average (9.91 vs. 8.97 symptoms) while those Underemployed Students had a greater prevalence of major depression (15.4% vs. 10.10%). Findings underscore the structural constraints shaping BEA’s labor market entry and the pervasiveness of precarity, even in seemingly stable jobs. Applying a multidimensional typological approach enabled us to see important nuances in the configuration of BEA employment arrangements and their collective relationship with mental health, even among those from low-income neighborhoods.