Überblick
Drawing on cumulative advantage/disadvantage and conservation of resources theories, I investigated changes in
economic, social, and personal resources and in subjective wellbeing (SWB) of workers as they stayed continuously
employed or continuously unemployed. I considered age, gender, and SES as potential amplifiers of inequality in
resources and SWB. Using 28 yearly waves from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1985–2012), I conducted
multilevel analysis with observations nested within participants. A longer duration of continuous employment
predicted slightly higher economic resources and thereby slightly higher SWB over time. A longer organizational
tenure had mixed effects on resources and predicted slight reductions in SWB via lower mastery. A longer duration of
continuous unemployment predicted marked reductions mainly in economic but also in social resources, which led to
modest SWB decreases. Younger workers, women, and workers with higher SES benefited from longer continuous
employment and organizational tenure more. At the between-person level, some evidence for self-selection of less
resourceful individuals into long-term or repeated unemployment emerged. The highly regulated German labor
market and social security system may both dampen the rewards of a strong labor force attachment and buffer
against the losses of long-term unemployment.