Job insecurity and insomnia among hotel frontline employees: the mediating role of psychological distress and the moderating role of financial stress

This study examines the association between job insecurity and insomnia among frontline hotel employees in Pakistan, with psychological distress as a mediating mechanism and financial stress as a moderating condition. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, data were collected from 292 full-time frontline hotel employees. The measurement model was assessed through confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS, and the hypotheses were tested using the SPSS PROCESS macro, specifically Models 4 and 7, with 5,000 bootstrap samples. The findings indicate that job insecurity is positively associated with insomnia and psychological distress. Psychological distress partially mediates the association between job insecurity and insomnia, suggesting that employment-related uncertainty may be linked to sleep difficulties partly through heightened emotional strain. Financial stress also strengthens the positive association between job insecurity and psychological distress, although this moderating effect should be interpreted as a statistically supported but context-dependent amplification effect. These findings extend understanding of how job-related uncertainty, emotional strain, and financial pressure are associated with employee sleep and wellbeing in the hospitality sector. The study offers practical implications for hospitality organizations seeking to reduce avoidable job-related uncertainty and provide better psychological and financial support for frontline employees.