Abstract

In the late 90's the Italian Ministry of Education has adopted new organizational and employment policies, consistently increasing the recruitment of temporary workers. This change has weighed heavily upon teachers, resulting in longer access time to permanent contracts and unavoidable occupational insecurity risks. This study aims to define teachers' precariousness risks and compare temporary and permanent teachers' professional well-being, in order to estimate whether and how occupational conditions are related to job satisfaction. Thanks to the multiple linear regression technique (MLR), the correlations existing between contractual treatment and four job satisfaction indeces are estimated. The analysis are mainly based on a survey edited by the IARD Institute in 2008, which counts 3,398 participants. The results show that even though non-standard teachers have to deal with higher turnover levels as well as salary and insurance disadvantages, they are significantly more satisfied than the permanent ones in two of the four considered job satisfaction dimensions.