Introduction While psychosocial working conditions have been associated with morbidity, their associations with mortality, especially cause-specific mortality, were less studied. Additionally, few studies considered the potentially time-varying aspect of exposures. We aimed to examine trajectories of job demand-control status in relation to all-cause and cause-specific mortality, including cardiovascular diseases (CVD), suicide, alcohol-related, and dementia mortality.

Material and Methods The study population consisted of around 4.8 million individuals aged 16 to 60 years in Sweden in 2005. Job control and job demands were measured using Job Exposure Matrices (JEMs). Trajectories of job control and job demands throughout 2005–2013 were identified, and job demand-control categories were subsequently classified. Deaths were recorded in the national death register until the end of 2019. Cox regression models were used.

Results A total of 148,399 individuals died in 2006–2019. Most individuals appeared to stay in a similar occupational category over the years and thus had stable levels of job control and job demands assessed using JEMs. Low control and passive jobs were associated with higher all-cause, CVD, and suicide mortality in both men and women. High strain jobs were associated with higher all-cause and CVD mortality in men. While low control, passive jobs, and high strain jobs were associated with higher alcohol-related mortality in women, they were associated with higher dementia mortality in men.

Conclusion Psychosocial working conditions are related to all-cause and cause-specific mortality, and there are sex differences in the associations. Future studies considering the time-varying aspect of job exposures using JEMs should note that most workers do not change occupations.