There's no place like home: The relationship of nonstandard employment and home ownership over the 1990s

Employment stability for many nonstandard workers is tenuous and early research shows some types of nonstandard employment carry long-term consequences in the form of lower wages and fewer benefits over time. This paper seeks to add to the literature by considering another long-term consequence for nonstandard workers: the inability of some nonstandard workers to accumulate assets. The particular asset this paper focuses on is home ownership. Logistic regression results using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 suggest that current and past employment in some nonstandard jobs, especially as a temporary worker, is associated with a lower probability of owning a home. This may have repercussions not only for households with temporary workers but for their community as well, since home ownership has been tied to positive spillovers such as increased social capital and community involvement.