Comparison between Freeters and Regular Employees: Moderating Effects of Skill Evaluation on the Age-Satisfaction Relationship

“Freeters” is a term used to describe workers who are employed in non-regular jobs. Freeters—unlike, for example, housewives or students—have no other primary roles in society. This article focuses on the effects of age on work satisfaction and compares the moderating effects of regular employees’ and freeters’ skill evaluation on age-satisfaction relationships. A hierarchical regression analysis based on data collected from 6,860 regular employees and 678 freeters demonstrated that age exerted a positive impact on regular employees’ work satisfaction. However, age exerted a negative impact on freeters’ work satisfaction. Further, the negative impacts of age were moderated by skill evaluation, such that the negative impact of age was much weaker when freeters highly evaluated their own skills.