Job Growth and Job Polarization in the United States and Europe, 1995–2007

Abstract

This book presents important new evidence on the patterns of employment growth in Europe, expanding previous research that has largely focused on the United States. The results show not only striking continuities across countries, in a significant pattern of job polarization in many of the largest economies in Europe, but also important heterogeneity with some nations experiencing very different patterns of employment growth. This research is crucial for developing institutionalist theories of employment change in modern economies that move beyond the focus on technological change in prior research. As the various chapters develop, employment growth is shaped by differences between countries in their populations, employment policies, welfare states, and gender relations, not just the technical exigencies of production in modern economies. Studying employment patterns also highlights differences between countries in economic development and sectoral concentrations that are all too often overlooked in broad claims about post-industrial economies. No doubt, the division of labour in modern capitalism is defined by technological change, but the final shape of job structures is also directed by local and political circumstances that differ between places. In this chapter we compare job growth in the United States and Europe, focusing on variations in the degree of polarization.KeywordsLabour MarketEmployment GrowthCurrent Population SurveyConstruction SectorWage StructureThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.