[WJW]

You seem to appraise the stability of a job as having zero (or at least very low) value. This might be justified if you are certain that you can get a new job in a short term if you lose the current one. However, from the banks' viewpoint the probability of you getting a new job soon enough to not miss any payments may be appraised much lower, possibly being influenced by other economic sectors where getting a new job takes much longer. Banks have interest and dividend payments to make themselves, so they obviously place a high value on stability. So yes, someone with a lower paying but more stable job may be more wealthy than someone with a higher paying but more unstable job.

Appraising the current net value of a job is always a bit shaky though, because there are so many variables.