Mario and Emma, two young college graduates in Spain and the U.S., were both unemployed, having trouble making ends meet, and dependent on financial support from their families. They shared similar experiences with “socioeconomic insecurity” (defined as employment precarity and economic instability). But, as they talked to me about their experiences and plans, they revealed very different perceptions of how insecurity textured their lives. For instance, Mario described a sense of being stalled waiting for better conditions: “There’s a lot of plans we can’t make now, and we have to hang on with what we have.” Emma, in contrast, described a sense of being in constant movement, trying to figure out a way forward: “You go with the flow and you make it work no matter what.”
In my recent article, published in Work and Occupations, I sought to understand these cross-national differences. I asked: How do people perceive socioeconomic insecurity? Where do their perceptions come from, and what are the consequences?
Study design
To answer these questions, I drew on 164 in-depth interviews with young college graduates in Spain and the U.S., conducted in 2020-2021. These are two advanced, post-industrial societies where insecurity is common among young people and welfare regimes are not very supportive, but where the specific conditions of insecurity that are present vary widely. I interviewed 127 young graduates who were experiencing post-graduation insecurity (e.g. unemployment, non-standard employment, debt, low wages, etc.) and 37 who were not.
I found that respondents perceived insecurity as having three characteristics that varied across national contexts: breadth, ambiguity and trajectory.
Breadth
Respondents perceived insecurity as having varying breadth: Spaniards perceived insecurity as narrowly focused on issues of employment, and Americans perceived insecurity as much more multi-faceted.
In Spain, Alejandro held sporadic under-the-table work, was not able to cover rent, held personal debt, andowed his friends money. His focus was nonetheless exclusively on finding a job: “My day to day is looking for a job wherever possible…because I think finding a job as soon as possible is the only thing that will let me save the few solid things that I have.”
Meanwhile, in the U.S., Sarah held a low-paying internship and student loan debt. She described employment as just one of several obstacles in her path: “It’s not just ‘I need to get a job,’ [but] ‘I have to factor in obscene amounts for health care… I have to strategize about how to pay off these loans’… it just adds more barriers to what I see as the nuts and bolts of being able to live on my own.” Even fully unemployed American respondents did not focus on the issue of employment as single-mindedly—or prioritize it as much—as Spanish respondents did.
Ambiguity
Respondents also perceived insecurity as having varying ambiguity: Spaniards perceived insecurity as unambiguous, clearly demarcated, and predictable, while Americans perceived it as ambiguous, poorly demarcated, and unpredictable.
In Spain, respondents seemed aware of exactly how “good” or “bad” their conditions were. For instance, Antonio, who held a low paying, part-time and temporary job described his insecurity through a very specific comparison against other kinds of jobs: “It’s a temporary contract instead of an ‘indefinido’ contract, it’s a part-time contract instead of a full-time one. There’s a lot of limitations that make my work more precarious.”
In the United States, respondents did not express a similar awareness of the nature of their employment. Take Sydney, who held a part-time job and student loan and credit card debt: “My job has benefits, a retirement plan, and the pay is double what I was making…but they fire people for any and everything, so you never know what’s going to happen.”
Trajectory
Finally, respondents perceived insecurity as having varying trajectories: Spaniards perceived insecurity as temporary, if long-lasting, while Americans perceived insecurity as recurrent and never wholly escapable.
Spanish respondents bemoaned their experiences but imagined an eventual escape. Consider Alba, who worked a part-time retail job: “I don’t know how many years you have to spend with [internship] contracts…it’s necessary to spend quite a few years like that before you have a good contract.”
Meanwhile, even American respondents with secure circumstances expressed concerns about the recurrence of insecurity, like Chloe, who said “there’s way too many pitfalls and way too many opportunities of failure…you could be working hard, [but] at any time, healthcare costs could come out of nowhere [or] you could be unemployed easily.”
Configurations of insecurity
My analysis reveals different “configurations of insecurity” that underpin these perceptions of insecurity. These configurations of insecurity are country-specific understandings of the facets of structural insecurity present in each context. Thus, what shapes people’s perceptions of the characteristics of insecurity isn’t just the objective conditions in each country, like social welfare or employment levels, but what people believe to be true about them. The Spanish case in particular shows how people’s understandings of their contexts can vary dramatically from actual conditions. For instance, Spanish respondents understood employment precarity as a new phenomenon, but it has long been prevalent in Spain. Likewise, Spanish respondents considered insecurity as plausibly transitory in part because of a back-up plan that they understood as guaranteed—becoming a civil servant with a permanent job for life. Few respondents mentioned how competitive these positions are, yet there are routinely thousands more applicants than available positions.
Consequences
These different perceptions of insecurity led Spanish respondents to restrict their possibilities and repress their desired plans, while American respondents diversified their possibilities and took some steps toward the future, albeit in ways that heightened their stress.
This was evident in how respondents in the two countries contemplated professional steps forward. In Spain, respondents described plans to accept or maintain jobs with poor conditions and treatment with the hope and expectation that circumstances would improve over time. Rafael, who had recently found a low-paying temporary job, planned to “hold on where I am, even though it’s shitty.”
In the United States, respondents described constant plans to accumulate resources and flexibly strengthen their defenses against any potential source of insecurity. For example, Ross, who was worried about high rent and student loan debt, described his plans to develop multiple streams of income: “[I want to] have a half income from here, a quarter income from here, a quarter income from there, so that way there’s still a chance [you’re] never on the street and never homeless.”
These different perceptions also shaped how respondents contemplated family formation. Like many Spanish respondents, Jorge, who was unemployed, described a sense of constraint around achieving many of the conventional markers of the transition to adulthood: “I know many people who would have liked to move out of their parents’ home earlier, or have kids or get married much earlier, but without stability…you can’t permit it.”
In contrast, like many others in the U.S., Rachel, who was unemployed and held debt, claimed that some decisions, like parenthood, could be made despite insecurity: “you’re never gonna be able to afford a kid. You’re never going to be prepared for that. But if it’s something that you want, you just have to do [it]…you will figure it out.”
Conclusions
My research reveals how the meaning and texture of insecurity varies across national contexts, with important repercussions. It illuminates how people’s understandings of the conditions in their contexts underpin their perceptions of the characteristics of insecurity, including when people have only partial or incorrect knowledge of the “real” conditions that surround them but operate as if they are real.
One question lingered as I completed my initial interviews: how might these characteristics of insecurity change over time? As I wrapped up follow-up interviews with the same respondents for my book project this summer, it became clear that Spanish respondents now perceive insecurity as markedly more ambiguous and recurrent than they did five years before, while American respondents’ perceptions are largely unchanged. These data, then, raise new questions about socioeconomic insecurity, including about why Spanish respondents’ perceptions of the characteristics of insecurity have changed so drastically and American respondents’ have not, as well as about how plans and decision-making in each country have remained stable or shifted over time in consequence.
Read More
Ayala-Hurtado, Elena. 2026. “Qualities and Configurations of Insecurity in the United States and Spain.” Work and Occupations 53(2):343-388.
Image: Ron Lach via Pexels
Ayala-Hurtado, Elena. 2025. “The Expectational Liminality of Insecure College Graduates.” Sociology of Education 98(1):27–43.
Author
Elena Ayala-Hurtado is a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University. Her research examines how people respond to uncertainty or socioeconomic insecurity, as well as how they navigate conflicting cultural ideals, particularly in relation to work, economic life, and higher education.