Employment uncertainty and non-coresidential partnership in very-low fertility countries: Italy and Japan

Having a partner is the initial step of any further family formation. Several studies have reported that growing labour market uncertainty has negative effects on both union formation and fertility; however, less is known about the previous step, that is, having a partner. Our study fills this gap in the literature by exploring the relationship between employment uncertainty and non-coresidential partnership status in two very-low fertility countries: Italy and Japan. We use two nationally representative surveys and examine the association between employment status and partnership status among 23–43-year-olds who have not had children and do not live with a partner (either cohabiting or married) based on logistic regression models. Our results show that employment status matters for having a non-coresidential partner only for Japanese women, particularly those unemployed/inactive, those who do not know their contract type and those with a fixed-term contract. We interpret our findings as indicating that in Italy, employment status does not matter for starting a relationship for both men and women because employment uncertainty prevails among young Italians. Regarding Japanese women, unemployed/inactive and fixed-term contractors may have difficulty finding a partner with their desired earning capacity. This study is one of few studies focusing on non-coresidential partnership as the initial step of further family formation. It demonstrates that the decision to have a partner is different from the decision to form a union, at least in terms of the association with employment status.