(Dis)Placing Trust: The Effects of Job Displacement on Generalized Trust over the Lifecourse

The adoption of ‘flexible modes of production’ across much of the developed world has been theoretically posited to be a substantial driver of declining macro-levels of social capital and generalized trust. A key facet of ‘flexible modes of production’ believed to be particularly harmful for social capital are increasing rates of job displacement (e.g. involuntary job loss from redundancy, downsizing, restructuring) and job insecurity. However, in spite of the posited association, very little has research has investigated if, how and why job displacement affects social capital. This paper explores how experiences of job displacement can affect individuals' tendencies to (dis)trust over the adult lifecourse, using two-waves of the Great Britain National Child Development Study cohort data. Applying lagged dependent variable and change-score models, we find that experiencing job displacement, between the ages of 33 and 50, appears to significantly scar generalized trust, with depressed trust observable at least nine years after the event occurred. In fact, even after individuals return to employment, distrust remains higher amongst those having experienced displacement. However, the severity of the effect appears dependent on the value an individual places on work: the more central employment is to individuals’ lives the stronger the negative effect of displacement. A range of mediators, such as physical health, mental well-being, and personal efficacy fail to account for the effect. This paper keenly demonstrates the importance of understanding how experiences within the economic sphere can spillover into the wider social sphere, both at micro- and macro-levels.