How to misread feeling bad or good

I am sure there is more to Peter Robinson's study of job insecurity than is reported in your article ("Feel-bad folly", THES, June 21) but the fact that people moved between jobs almost as much in the 1950s and 1960s as they do now does not necessarily reveal the whole truth.

There is a considerable difference between moving jobs out of choice and moving jobs out of necessity - particularly if the necessity is caused by redundancy.

Statistics relating to mobility show only part of the picture, loss of autonomy could be a big factor in creating a sense of insecurity. While I would not normally rush to the defence of the media, I do not think they should shoulder all the blame for the persistence of the feel-bad factor. There are other examples of professional/managerial work, such as banking, where the secure and permanent jobs that were on offer in earlier decades seem to have disappeared.

John Burchell Placehouse Lane Old Coulsden, Surrey