Background: The neoliberal policies and its socioeconomic consequences in Korea have made employment conditions insecure and affected employees' health as well.
Methods and findings: To examine the association between employment condition and smoking status, we selected male respondents aged 20-59 that participated in all of the 8(th)-10(th) wave of Korean Labor and Income Panel Study(KLIPS) which is a nationally representative data. Precarious working was significantly associated with smoking compared to standard working even after adjusting for socioeconomic indicators and self rated health status. After controlling for overall life satisfaction, the odds ratio of smoking among precarious workers decreased, but it was still marginally significant (OR = 1.43, 95% CI = 0.99 to 2.07). A relation between precarious working and heavy smoking was also significant. Precarious working was associated with a decreased likelihood of quitting smoking, while it was not significant any more after adjusting for overall satisfaction on life. Precarious work was also related to a higher likelihood of relapse among former smokers, but was not significant after adjusting for other confounders.
Conclusions: Precarious workers were more likely to be smokers and heavy smokers than standard workers. Unemployment is also a significant risk factor for decreased quitting and smoking relapse. However, insecure employment was an even more consistent determinant of current smoking behavior than unemployment.