Danish Labour Market Research Articles

Working together or apart? Exposure between natives and migrants in Danish workplaces from 1996 to 2019

ABSTRACT This article examines the extent to which the increasing ethnic diversity of Northern Europe’s population translates into exposure between natives and migrants (and their descendants) in the workplace, using Danish register data over nearly three decades. Consistent with the expectations of neo-assimilation theory, we find that Danish workplaces have become a common site of mutual exposure, including exposure between natives and two subcategories of culturally distant migrants. At the same time, consistent with segmented assimilation theory, we find increasing segmentation, even in a highly regulated Danish labour market. The distribution of migrants and their descendants in workplaces increasingly deviates from a (simulated) random distribution and we find increasing discrepancies between opportunity pools and exposure levels, particularly at the lower end of the labour market. By opening the black box of workplace composition, this article demonstrates the co-occurrence of increased exposure and labour market segmentation, with its potential to respectively facilitate and hinder integration.

Macroeconomic Aspects of Unemployment Benefits: Evaluating the Danish Policy

ABSTRACT This article provides an assessment of the Danish public policy of lowering unemployment benefits, adopted by the Danish government in the tax reform of 2012. To do so, we employ a stock-flow consistent model in which we incorporate the central features of the Danish labour market and the unemployment insurance system. We estimate the model using quarterly data over the period 2005Q4–2020Q1. To evaluate the effects of an unemployment insurance policy, we perform counterfactual analysis by reversing public policy in relation to unemployment insurance and compare the results with the original (baseline) scenario containing the policy effects. Overall, our findings suggest that when the aggregate demand channel, amongst other relevant macroeconomic channels, is included in the assessment, the effects of unemployment benefits on economic growth, employment, and fiscal balance tend to be weaker. These findings clearly question the political decision of suppressing unemployment benefits in general and more specifically in countries with low unemployment rates such as Denmark.

“You are too expensive, you need to work faster!”: Ukrainian agricultural workers navigating precarities in Denmark

AbstractUkrainian migration to Denmark has been structured by national fast‐track programmes, predominantly funnelling Ukrainians towards low‐skilled and precarious jobs in Danish livestock production. However, since the recent Russian invasion, the introduction of Law L145 has entitled Ukrainians in Denmark to similar employment rights as the European Union citizens through an SL1 visa. While this opens up previously inaccessible areas of the Danish labour market, it also makes Ukrainians subject to the same restrictive legislation as other refugees and puts a hard end date to their visas, making their future status uncertain. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with nine Ukrainian agricultural workers living in Denmark at the time of the invasion, this article explores their attempts to navigate precarities of work, gender and legal status in Denmark. Precarities of work sprang from differences between agricultural sectors, as year‐round work with livestock involved a dependence on farmers, where workers accepted exploitative conditions in order to maintain their residence and work permits. Precarities of gender were reflected in the way women were made dependent on their partner through an “accompanying family members” visa, which shaped family lives and became problematic in the case of separations. Precarities of legal status were created by frequent legislative changes that made legal status uncertain and destabilized the long‐term investments of Ukrainians planning to stay in Denmark. While the SL1 offered a way out of some of the precarities experienced by agricultural workers, it did so at the cost of added complications and continuing uncertainty, pushing people from one kind of precarity to another.

General practitioners’ stay-at-work practices in patients with musculoskeletal disorders: using Intervention Mapping to develop a training program

Objectives To describe current stay-at-work practices among Danish general practitioners (GPs) in relation to patients with musculoskeletal disorders, to identify potential avenues for improvement, and to suggest a training program for the GPs. Design and Setting We followed the principles of Intervention Mapping. Data were collected by means of literature searches, focus group interviews with GPs, and interaction with stakeholder representatives from the Danish labour market. Results GPs’ current stay-at-work practices were influenced by systemic, organisational, and legislative factors, and by personal determinants, including knowledge and skills relating to stay-at-work principles and musculoskeletal disorders, recognition of the patient’s risk of long-term work disability, their role as a GP, and expectations of interactions with other stay-at-work stakeholders. GPs described themselves as important partners and responsible for the diagnostic and holistic assessments of the patient but placed themselves on the side line relying on the patient or workplace stakeholders to act. Their practices are influenced both by patients, employers, and by other stakeholders. We propose a training course for GPs that incorporate both concrete tools and behaviour change techniques. Conclusions We have identified varied perspectives on the roles and responsibilities of GPs, as well as legislative and organisational barriers, and proposed a training program. Not all barriers identified can be addressed by a training course, and some questions are left unanswered, among others - who are best suited to help patients staying at work?

Income developments in the great recession: status for the Danish prime-age working population a decade following the onset of the Financial Crisis

To assess the impact of the Financial Crisis and the Great Recession in Denmark this paper studies developments in Danish labor market income and disposable income from 1995 through 2019. We focus on the prime age working population of 25–54-year-old Danish citizens, with emphasis on labor market performance of the younger and less educated members of this labor force. The recession had a large and long-lasting impact on labor market earnings. Young individuals and, especially, those with least education suffered the largest setbacks to earnings developments. Disposable income was not affected in a similar way. Welfare state transfers and lower taxes softened the impact on disposable income, while the unprecedentedly low lending-rates and tax reform also elevated consumption possibilities. Tracking economic activity of the youngest cohorts after the onset of the Financial Crisis we find that catching up to earnings levels of previous cohorts took on average 8 years. For young men the setback to earnings was larger and catching-up slower. A decade following the onset of the Financial Crisis around 20% of young men, pertaining to the bottom of the earnings distribution, had still not caught up to the earnings of previous cohorts.

Network Connections and Board Seats: Are Female Networks Less Valuable?

We investigate how sizes of professional networks affect the probability of appointment to a supervisory board and whether the effect is gendered. Using an employer-employee data set of the Danish labor market, 1995–2011, we find larger networks to associate with a higher probability of becoming a first-time director. The effect is larger for men. One explanation is that men, compared with women, have more connections to larger and listed firms and to other males—attributes that increase the appointment probability. Women who have connections to incumbent directors before being appointed director have more labor market experience than other directors.

Notified occupational mental disorders: associations with health and income.

Studies indicate that workers' compensation claim processes may affect patients' health negatively. However, few studies focus on patients with mental health claims, and the claim process varies between countries. The aims of this study were to examine whether being notified to the Danish Labour Market Insurance with an occupational mental health condition was associated with changes in visits to the general practitioner (GP), use of medicine and annual income. Study participants were 965 patients with a mental disorder examined at a department of occupational medicine. Of these, 669 patients were notified with an occupational mental disorder, 296 were not. Health-related outcomes, including GP visits and prescriptions of psychotropic drugs, were estimated at baseline during the year of medical examination, while annual income was estimated a year before the examination. The follow-up was the year after the year of examination for all outcomes. Outcomes were collected from the Danish National Bureau of Statistics. Analyses were conducted using Poisson regression and conditional logistic regression. All measured outcomes decreased from baseline to follow-up in both groups. These changes were not significantly different depending on notification status at baseline. This study suggests that being notified with an occupational mental disorder does not significantly affect health-related outcomes. A significant decrease in annual income over time was seen in both groups, the notified and the unnotified group, highlighting the importance of providing support to all employees with a mental disorder.

The Danish labor market, 2000–2022

The Danish labor market, 2000–2022

From Female Migrant Sex Workers to Migrant Workers: When the Danish Labor Market Encounters the Policy Field of Anti-Trafficking

Abstract This article explores how the policy field of anti-trafficking has been further complicated by a shift of focus from female migrant sex workers to migrant workers in Denmark. As a discursive terrain established through various discourses produced by articulations, practices, and interests, Danish anti-trafficking is an excellent example of how highly regulated and different state institutions together with trade unions establish regimes of prostitution, migration, crime, and labor market. Together, these regimes create the complex policy field of anti-trafficking. The article demonstrates how a trade union, as a part of the labor market regime, is a new player. Despite this new player in the anti-trafficking policy field, the article argues that the figure of “the migrant worker” becomes invisible as logics and categories of “labor exploitation” and “labor rights” collide with the ideas of rescuing poor migrant women selling sex.

Danish Flexicurity: Rights and Duties

Denmark is one of the richest countries in the world and achieves this in combination with low inequality, low unemployment, and high-income security. This performance is often attributed to the Danish labor market model characterized by what has become known as flexicurity. This essay describes and evaluates Danish flexicurity. The Danish experience shows that flexicurity in itself, that is, flexible hiring and firing rules for firms combined with high income security for workers, is insufficient for successful outcomes. The flexicurity policy also needs to include comprehensive active labor market programs (ALMPs) with compulsory participation for recipients of unemployment compensation. Denmark spends more on active labor market programs than any other OECD country. We review theory showing how ALMPs can mitigate adverse selection and moral hazard problems associated with high income security and review empirical evidence on the effectiveness of ALMPs from the ongoing Danish policy evaluation, which includes a systematic use of randomized experiments. We also discuss the aptness of flexicurity to meet challenges from globalization, automation, and immigration and the trade-offs that the United States (or other countries) would face in adopting a flexicurity policy.

Multiparty work relationships in Denmark: The active role of social partners

The article discusses selected forms of multiparty work relationships that are surfacing in Denmark, and the responses of the social partners to these developments. The overall approach of the Danish labour market parties and legislators is with a view to ensuring that work performed by workers in atypical employment relationships, such as multiparty work relationships, are also covered by collective agreements, which can be enforced. Collective agreements must be effective and adhered to, and attempts to circumvent collective agreements are strictly prohibited. As such, multiparty work relationships are addressed as any other work relationships, and are often expressly included in normal collective agreements. This is the case, unless a setup is viewed as an attempt to circumvent a collective agreement by creating pro forma contracts. In particular, subcontracting by independent contractors has been the subject of legal review, where the trade unions have filed claims before the industrial courts to test the reality of subcontracting arrangements. Also, the question of who is the responsible employer surfaces in multiparty work relationships in particular, as the responsible employer is subject to the duty of adhering to the collective agreement and other workers’ rights. The duty to adhere to provisions in collective agreements covers fraudulent contractual setups, and the user entity that in reality is the employer can be liable for breach of the agreement. Furthermore, the social partners enter into negotiations in respect of new forms of work, adapting collective agreements to such new forms of work. This is the case for platform work. Finally, certain trade unions engage with the interests of their members in becoming independent contractors, and have developed support for their members’ endevaours by way of a formal service bureau to look after the administrative side of being an indepdent contractor. The role of the social partners continues to be central and necessary to counteract circumvention and fraudulent business structures. At the same time, the role of the social partners is also characterised as adaptive and dynamic as they seek to actively engage with the interests of their memberes, and to continue to be a relevant partner for their members as well as for society at large.

A nationwide skin protection program introduced in hairdressing vocational schools was followed by a decreased risk of occupational hand eczema.

Compliance with glove use and safe work practices are important factors in primary prevention of occupational hand eczema (OHE) in hairdressers. To assess the risk OHE and compliance with skin protective measures in hairdressers trained before and after implementation of a nationwide skin protection program in Danish hairdressing vocational schools in 2011. A repeated cross-sectional study was performed. A questionnaire was sent in 2009 and 2020. The Danish Labour Market Supplementary Pension Scheme provided information on yearly payments from the hairdressing profession. A response rate of 66.6% (305/460) was obtained in the 2009 survey and of 29.9% (363/1215) in the 2020 survey. The career time prevalence of OHE decreased from 42.8% to 29.0% (adjusted odds ratio 0.55 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.40-0.77) and the incidence rate of OHE decreased from 57.5 (95%CI 48.4-68.4) to 42.0 (95%CI 34.6-50.9) per 1000 person years (incidence rate ratio 0.73 [95%CI 0.56-0.95] between the two surveys). A statistically significant (P< .05) increase in glove use when doing wet-work and when handling hair dyes, permanent wave solutions and bleaching products was observed in the 2020 compared to the 2009 survey. Our data suggest that skin protection training during apprenticeship reduces the risk of OHE in hairdressers. The lack of primary prevention of OHE in hairdressing vocational schools may be a missed opportunity in the prevention of the disease.

Organizationally Imprinted Networks and Gender Disparities in the Labor Market

How do organizations gender network hiring? There is ample research suggesting that network hiring contributes to gendered outcomes for workers and organizations and that the hiring organization is key to this process. However, the hiring firm is not the only relevant organizational context for labor market networks, since workers’ past labor market experiences are likely to have shaped the networks they carry forward as they search for new employment opportunities. The settings in which workers originally formed connections may therefore also influence the value of job movers’ contacts. This paper uses administrative data on job moves across the Danish labor market from 2014-2016 and an innovative matching strategy to examine how the gender composition of two organizations - hiring establishments and the establishments in which a mover and their contact previously worked together - influences the value of contacts. We find that ties to male managers are particularly useful overall, and in both organizational settings, ties are most useful when employees are in the gender majority. Our findings show how successfully managing a diverse workforce is important for the long-term careers of workers and suggests that access to authority figures should be a priority of organizational networking and mentorship programs.

Retention of skilled immigrants: Off-job-embeddedness on global workers’ Likelihood to Remain in DK

The globalization of labor markets has provided specialists opportunities to work around the world but little is still known about why they chose to leave, or stay in, a host country. This paper focuses on how two off-the-job embeddedness factors affect international retention. Contrary to existing research, we suggest that embeddedness off-the-job creates both pull-factors based on a sense of belonging, and push-factors, as it enables information, flows, and social comparison. We present a study based on population data covering all skilled immigrants in the Danish labor market across 9 years. Results indicate that embeddedness in professional multi-ethnical communities increases the likelihood of staying, while community embeddedness based on professional similarity is related to a higher likelihood to leave Denmark. The analysis also reveals that having a spouse limits skilled immigrants' likelihood to leave. In the study, we importantly find that children have a strong lock-in mechanism for skilled immigrants, and the effect is particularly strong for immigrants whose spouse is not from the host country. The study contributes new insights into the consequences of embeddedness as well as practical knowledge on the dynamics underlying the global mobility of highly skilled workers.

Monopsony Power and Wages: Evidence from the Introduction of Serfdom in Denmark

Abstract We exploit a large historical shock to the Danish labour market to provide evidence of how restrictions on labour mobility increase monopsony power and thereby reduce wages. By severely limiting the possibility of the rural population to work beyond their place of birth, the reintroduction of serfdom in 1733 aimed to increase monopsony power and secure cheaper labour in the countryside. Using a unique data source based on the archives of estates from the eighteenth century, we test whether serfdom affected the wages of farmhands more strongly than other groups in the labour market, and results based on a difference-in-differences approach reveal evidence consistent with a strong negative effect following its introduction. This is confirmed when we use a different control group from the Swedish province of Scania. We also investigate whether one mechanism was that boys with rural backgrounds were prevented from taking up apprenticeships in towns and find suggestive evidence that this was indeed the case.

THE SAINT MODEL: A DECADE LATER

AbstractWhile many of the prevalent stochastic mortality models provide adequate short- to medium-term forecasts, only few provide biologically plausible descriptions of mortality on longer horizons and are sufficiently stable to be of practical use in smaller populations. Among the very first to address the issue of modelling adult mortality in small populations was the SAINT model, which has been used for pricing, reserving and longevity risk management by the Danish Labour Market Supplementary Pension Fund (ATP) for more than a decade. The lessons learned have broadened our understanding of desirable model properties from the practitioner’s point of view and have led to a revision of model components to address accuracy, stability, flexibility, explainability and credibility concerns. This paper serves as an update to the original version published 10 years ago and presents the SAINT model with its modifications and the rationale behind them. The main improvement is the generalization of frailty models from deterministic structures to a flexible class of stochastic models. We show by example how the SAINT framework is used for modelling mortality at ATP and make comparisons to the Lee-Carter model.

A Joint Model for Longitudinal and Time-to-event Data in Social and Life Course Research: Employment Status and Time to Retirement

Longitudinal studies including a time-to-event outcome in social research often use a form of event history analysis to analyse the influence of time-varying endogenous covariates on the time-to-event outcome. Many standard event history models however assume the covariates of interest to be exogenous and inclusion of an endogenous covariate may lead to bias. Although such bias can be dealt with by using joint models for longitudinal and time-to-event outcomes, these types of models are underused in social research. In order to fill this gap in the social science modelling toolkit, we introduce a novel Bayesian joint model in which a multinomial longitudinal outcome is modelled simultaneously with a time-to-event outcome. The methodological novelty of this model is that it concerns a correlated random effects association structure that includes a multinomial longitudinal outcome. We show the use of the joint model on Danish labour market data and compare the joint model to a standard event history model. The joint model has three advantages over a standard survival model. It decreases bias, allows us to explore the relation between exogenous covariates and the longitudinal outcome and can be flexibly extended with multiple time-to-event and longitudinal outcomes.

Letter to the Editor

In his review of my book Labor Pioneers: Economy, Labor, and Migration in Filipino-Danish Relations 1950–2015, Frank Caestecker misguides the reader in the first sentence. He states, “Filipino migration to Denmark (and Europe) can be split into two different flows: labor migration and marriage migration” (Labor 18:1). That may be the reviewer's analytical position, but it is not mine. In the book I argue explicitly against this categorization. Those who came in 1960–73 called themselves the Filipino Pioneers, and the majority carried or obtained shortly after arrival work and residence permits tied to their own person—not to an employer or spouse. From 1974, when Danish authorities implemented a so-called immigration stop, it became increasingly difficult for Philippine citizens to migrate in the same way. The easiest way to gain legal access to the Danish labor market became to marry someone with Danish citizenship or permanent residence. Does that make the post-1974 arrivals marriage migrants?In my view, that term obscures realities. Labor Pioneers shows that most post-1974 arrivals, just like the Pioneers, came in the search of a more prosperous and secure life for themselves—and often their (extended) families. Many found work in the same workplaces as the Pioneers. In the 1990s, a new legal opportunity to enter Denmark without having to marry opened to Filipinas/os: the au pair scheme, where young people live and work in a private household doing “chores” in exchange for accommodation and an “allowance.” Many of these migrants continued to move from one temporary permit to another in several European countries, but some married in Denmark, which was one of the few ways they could prolong their legal stay. Does that make them marriage migrants?The reviewer goes on to say that “the marriage migrant is only mentioned when these mostly female partners of Danish citizens become active on the labor market and interact with Filipino labor migrants.” This implies that there are Filipina “marriage migrants” who do not “become active on the labor market.” In my experience—having interviewed dozens of migrants from various arrival periods, having done participant observation and collected vast numbers of empirical materials from individuals and organizations—few, if any, migrants come without a plan to work and earn. What structurally changed over time were not the motivations for migrating (even if every individual has their own story) but the conditions for entering, residing, and working legally in Denmark. The implications of this reconfiguration of labor migration are explored in my book from various perspectives, one of them being life stories—which the reviewer finds much too detailed.The lack of appreciation for details is also reflected in the facts that the reviewer gets wrong. To take but two examples, Caestecker states that forty-nine Filipinas were recruited in 1973 to a Danish hotel “through a state agency.” They were not, for the simple reason that this agency was only established a year later. Most of “the 49ers” had been recommended by Filipina/o workers already residing in Denmark and working at other hotels in town. However, a couple had been referred by Philippine labor officials, and a woman from Department of Labor escorted the group to Copenhagen, leading me to investigate state involvement in labor export prior to the establishment of Overseas Employment Development Board (OEDB; precursor to Philippine Overseas Employment Administration). I unravel this part of the story through both oral history and archival studies using materials in the Philippines and Denmark that to my knowledge have not been explored before. This apparently escaped the reviewer, who claims that my “empirical material is mainly based on oral sources.” The reviewer also states that after 1975, “labor migration from the Philippines did not resume until the late 1990s.” This is of course wrong, and an entire chapter describes specifically how migration continued despite the formal ban (including how the OEDB continued to deploy workers to Denmark).The reviewer ends by regretting that I did not make a comparative European study rather than focusing on “the Danish case,” thus ignoring extensive references to other Nordic countries and the European context more broadly. It is not, however, a comparative study, which I do not disagree might be interesting and useful. What I disagree with is the reviewer's idea that a study paying equal attention to all parts of Europe could be completed with “little additional effort.” In 1975, Europe was the destination of one in every four temporary Filipino migrants, and today it is home to around a million Filipinos. Labor Pioneers is a small contribution to this enormous—and largely unexplored—field. May ample future efforts be put into excavating this rich part of labor and migration history.

Long-term follow-up of hand eczema in hairdressers: a prospective cohort study of Danish hairdressers graduating from 1985 to 2007.

Occupational hand eczema is common among hairdressers and implementing effective preventive measures requires a good understanding of the disease's epidemiology. To investigate the long-term development of hand eczema (HE) in hairdressers. A prospective cohort study of all hairdressers graduating from Danish hairdressing vocational schools from 1985 to 2007 was conducted. A self-administered questionnaire was sent in 2009 with follow-up in 2020. Data from the Danish labour market supplementary pension scheme provided information on yearly affiliation with the hairdressing trade. The cumulative lifetime prevalence of HE increased from 42.3% at baseline to 45.2% at follow-up (odds ratio [OR], 1.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0-1.2). The incidence rate decreased from 42.8 cases/1000 person-years (95% CI, 40.8-44.8) at baseline to 3.4 cases/1000 person-years (95% CI, 2.5-4.6) within the follow-up period. HE onset occurred within 8 years of beginning an apprenticeship for >90% of cases and occurred within the apprenticeship period for 68% of cases. The risk factors associated with having had HE at baseline were a previous positive patch test (adjusted OR [aOR], 5.3; 95% CI, 4.2-6.6), a history of atopic dermatitis (aOR, 3.4; 95% CI, 2.9-4.0) and female sex (aOR, 1.8; 95% CI 1.4-2.3). The most important risk factors at follow-up were previous HE (aOR, 10.1; 95% CI, 7.3-13.8) and a positive patch test within the follow-up period (aOR, 4.5; 95% CI, 3.0-6.8). Among the hairdressers who had HE at baseline, 65.5% exhibited remission, whereas 34.6% had persistent and often severe HE at follow-up. Hairdressers with persistent HE were the subgroup of the study population most frequently affected by the risk factors identified for HE. Primary prevention of HE should focus on hairdressing apprentices and fully trained hairdressers who have recently graduated. Approximately one-third of trained hairdressers develop persistent and often severe HE, emphasizing the need for early intervention.

Rhino Conjunctivitis and Asthma Among Seafood Processing Workers in Greenland. A Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction: The fishing- and the seafood processing industries are the largest industrial sectors in Greenland. Despite this, only a few cases of occupational diseases in this industry have been reported to the Danish Labor Market Insurance. Occupational asthma and allergy are well-known occupational diseases in the seafood processing industry worldwide and underreporting of occupational diseases in Greenland is suspected.Objective: The aim of the current study was to examine the associations between job exposures and occupational asthma and rhino conjunctivitis in workers in the Greenlandic seafood processing industry and to compare the prevalence of sensitization by type and degree of exposure to snow crab, shrimp, fish, and the fish parasite, Anisakis simplex.Methods: Data from 382 Greenlandic seafood processing workers were collected during 2016–2018. Data included questionnaire answers, lung function measurements, skin prick tests, and blood samples with ImmunoCAP. For all analyses, p < 0.05 was considered the level of significance.Results: 5.5% of the workers had occupational asthma and 4.6% had occupational rhino conjunctivitis. A large proportion of the workers were sensitized to allergens specific to the workplace; 18.1% to snow crab, 13.6% to shrimp, 1.4% to fish, and 32.6% to the fish parasite, A. simplex. We found a dose-response relationship between the risk of being sensitized to snow crab and A. simplex and years of exposure to the allergens in the seafood processing industry.Conclusion: This study showed that a considerable proportion of workers in the Greenlandic seafood processing industry had occupational asthma and rhino conjunctivitis. Additionally, the study showed high sensitization levels toward snow crab, shrimp, and the fish parasite, A. simplex. This supports the hypothesis of a considerable degree of underreporting of occupational allergic airway disease in the Greenlandic seafood processing industry. Prospectively, it is important to inform workers, leaders, and health care professionals of the health problems and the law on worker's compensation, and to initiate preventive actions at factory and trawler level.