Working but hungry: precarious employment and household food insecurity in Ghana

Workers and food systems are integral to economic progress in Africa, where food insecurity is rising alongside exacerbating levels of precarious employment conditions. However, empirical literature remains scant on this relationship. This study examines the link between precarious employment and food insecurity in Ghana using the country’s first Annual Household Income and Expenditure Panel Survey. Precarious employment is a multidimensional index of income inadequacy, employment insecurity, lack of rights and protection, and an unsafe or unhealthy work environment, whereas food insecurity is measured using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale. The main finding, adjusted for endogeneity, indicates that precarious employment increases household food insecurity, a finding that is robust to alternative measures of precarious employment and food insecurity. We further find that precarious employment increases food insecurity more among female-headed households in rural areas. Relatively, employment insecurity has the biggest effect in increasing food insecurity followed by lack of rights and protection, income inadequacy, and unsafe or unhealthy work environment. These findings further demonstrate that health shocks and household asset accumulation are important channels through which precarious employment affects food insecurity. We suggest policies to mitigate health shocks and bolster household asset accumulation among workers in precarious employment to safeguard household food security.