Occupational Psychosocial Hazards of the Emerging U.S. Green Collar Workforce

Background: The evolution of a new workforce can usher new and even change existing physical and psychosocial workplace exposures. The greening of the U.S. economy has created “green collar” jobs that involve protecting wildlife/ecosystems, reducing pollution/waste, and/or reducing energy usage and lowering carbon emissions. Little is known of the occupational psychosocial exposures of this relatively new workforce. The purpose of the current study is to compare select psychosocial workplace stressors (i.e., work-life imbalance, job insecurity, and workplace harassment) in green versus non-green collar workers.

Methods: Study participant demographic data and psychosocial exposure information were obtained from the nationally representative 2010 National Health Interview Survey Occupational Supplement (NHIS) and further linked to the Occupational Information Network Database (O*NET) to obtain green collar status. Multivariable logistic regression models were employed to predict job insecurity, work-life imbalance, and workplace harassment in green collar versus non-green collar jobs.

Results: After controlling for gender, age, race, ethnicity, educational attainment, and self-reported quality of life, green collar workers  (n=2,599), relative to non-green collar workers (n=11,198), were significantly more likely to report job insecurity (odds ratio=1.16; 95% confidence interval=1.04-1.30) and work-life imbalance (1.18; 1.03-1.35), but less likely to experience workplace harassment (0.79; 0.64-0.98).

Conclusions: As the psychosocial work environment is linked to several acute and chronic poor health outcomes, early identification of these risk factors is recommended for documenting the changing work environment and developing policies to promote optimal health at work in this new and rapidly expanding sector of the U.S. workforce.