Poor quality employment is worse for mental health than no job at all and contributes to mental distress in new mothers

Purpose This Research Watch aims to summarise two recent research papers relating to employment and mental health, one relating to all sectors of the working‐age population and the other to women who had recently had a child. Design/methodology/approach A search was undertaken to identify research papers with a mental health and social inclusion focus published within the past 12 months. Findings Both studies involved large samples of people in Australia. The first paper used information from over 7,000 people of working age, and investigated whether the quality of employment was related to mental health. Poor quality employment turned out to be worse for mental health than no job at all. The second paper focused on over 1,000 women who had given birth in the previous 12 months, and found that quality of employment predicted whether they experienced mental distress. Originality/value These two papers add to our understanding of the relationship between mental health and employment, the first focusing specifically on the quality of employment rather than simply employed versus unemployed status, the second by highlighting how poor quality employment may contribute to psychological distress after having a baby. Real social inclusion through employment may depend not only on being in work but the quality of that work.