Employment Gap Research Articles

Impact of capacity underutilization of milk processing plants on employment multipliers

The investigation into the employment-generating capacity of industries has captured the interest of numerous scholars on a global scale. However, there is a paucity of literature on the impact of the capacity underutilization of dairy processing plants (DPPs) on employment multipliers. This study employed secondary data sourced from the Tanzania Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries’ budget reports for the fiscal year 2022/23. Using the Leontief Input‒Output simulation model, the study establishes the effects of low utilization of milk processing plants on employment generation. The study establishes employment gaps created by capacity underutilization of DPPs along the milk value chain. The fact that the available DPPs operate at just 23.4 % of their total capacity constrains employment opportunities across the entire value chain. Approximately 500,000 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) minimum wage jobs (i.e., direct, indirect, and induced) are lost annually, highlighting the need for measures to address the challenge of undercapacity utilization of DPPs. Furthermore, the study found significant backwards and forward linkages in the upstream and downstream parts of the dairy value chain. This indicates strong connections and the potential for job creation within the value chain. Thus, ensuring a consistent milk supply in dairy processing plants is crucial to mitigate undercapacity issues in DPPs and to sustain job growth in the milk value chain. Additionally, the study strongly recommends policy measures to boost DPPs’ capacity utilization, foster economic growth, develop the dairy industry, and enhance the overall national economy.

Gender Gaps in Employment and Earnings after Job Loss

Gender Gaps in Employment and Earnings after Job Loss

Social origin and women’s occupational careers. The role of parenthood in shaping social inequality among Italian women

This paper studies in longitudinal perspective the direct effect of social origin (DESO) on the careers of women in Italy, focusing on the role of motherhood in shaping the DESO and its pattern over the life course. Career outcomes are seen in terms of employment interruptions and of occupational status. First, the paper analyzes when the DESO appears, and how it evolves over the occupational career and the life course. Second, it investigates whether and how motherhood shapes the magnitude and trend over the career of the DESO. Results, based on growth curve models, show that the DESO in occupational status already appears at first job, and then slightly changes over the life course, whereas the social origin gap in the probability of career breaks is small in the first years after labour market entry and then increases. Parenthood does not help to explain the DESO because women from low social origin are more likely to have children than women from high social origin. Rather, it contributes to the increase of the DESO over the life course because of different career trajectories after motherhood, with higher risks to leave employment among women from the lower classes and (slightly) higher occupational premia among women from the service class.

Maginalised population concentration and employment gap in non-elementary occupations in India: a regional level study

Maginalised population concentration and employment gap in non-elementary occupations in India: a regional level study

Exploring the role of high school engineering courses in promoting science attitudes for students with learning disabilities

AbstractDemand for engineering‐interested and proficient high school graduates continues to grow across the nation. However, there remains a severe gap in college participation and employment in engineering fields for students with learning disabilities (SWLDs). One potential way to encourage SWLDs to consider engineering as a profession and promote the development of key science attitudes may be through engineering and technology career and technical education (E‐CTE) coursework. In this study, we address the following research questions: Do SWLDs take E‐CTE courses in the early years of high school at different rates compared to students without learning disabilities? What is the relationship between early E‐CTE coursetaking and science attitudes (self‐efficacy, utility, identity), and does this differ for students with and without learning disabilities? How do specific engineering career expectations change with respect to enrollment in early E‐CTE coursework, and do these differ for students with and without learning disabilities? We utilize the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS) to respond to the research questions through moderation models and a student fixed effects methodology. Ultimately, we found no evidence of SWLD underrepresentation in E‐CTE in high school. However, SWLDs were expected to benefit more than the general population from E‐CTE participation with respect to higher levels of science self‐efficacy and science identity. Implications from these findings include how to encourage persistence along the engineering pathway, the growth of career pathway policies at the state level, and how to incorporate E‐CTE practices in academic courses.

Not All That It Seems: Narrowing of Gender Gaps in Employment during the Onset of COVID-19 in Indonesia

This paper studies the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on Indonesia’s labor market, using the exogenous timing of the pandemic in a seasonal difference-in-differences framework. We use multiple rounds of Indonesia’s National Labor Force Survey to establish a pre-pandemic employment trend and attribute any difference from this trend to the estimated effect of the pandemic on employment outcomes. We find mixed impacts of the pandemic on Indonesia’s labor market. While the pandemic has reduced the gender gap in employment participation due to the “added worker effect” among women, it has also lowered overall employment quality among both women and men. The increase in female employment was mainly driven by women in rural areas without a high school education entering either informal agricultural employment or unpaid family work. For men, the pandemic had negative employment impacts for all subgroups. Among the employed, both women and men work fewer hours and earn lower wages.

The later, the better? The ethnic penalty on labor market achievement by migrant generation: evidence from Italy

The socio-economic inclusion of the children of immigrants in the host labor markets is still problematic, and connoted by a general penalization if compared with their native counterpart. Anyway, this issue has been studied only in old migration countries, while it remains largely unexplored in the new receiving ones. From this perspective, Italy represents a very interesting and uncharted case study, where first-generation migrants have already emerged as a particularly disadvantaged group. This work aims at filling this gap, by exploiting the two Eurostat "ad hoc modules" (2008; 2014) European Union Labour Force Survey. By means of multivariate statistical techniques, it will be estimated the gap in employment and socio-economic status among natives and migrants, distinguished according to their generation, and how this gap varies within the second-generation individuals with different parental area of origin.

Gender employment gap at arrival and its dynamics: The case of refugees in Germany

In recent years, refugee women’s experiences have received considerable attention in the academic discourse on immigrant labor market integration. Taking a dynamic perspective, we investigate gender differences in the labor market integration of refugees who arrived in Germany between 2013 and 2019. We examine refugees' trajectories in the early post-arrival period and explore a number of conditions that have been proposed to influence gendered labor market outcomes. Using panel data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Refugee Sample, we find initially narrow gender differences among refugees that gradually widen over time. While initial differences in human capital and care responsibilities contribute significantly to the gender gap in employment in the first year after arrival, our study shows that the gap widens primarily due to refugee women experiencing lower returns to their human and social capital and health, as well as bearing a heavier burden of childcare responsibilities. These findings highlight the compounded disadvantages that refugee women face in the host country due to their limited ability to fully utilize their labor market resources, coupled with their primary responsibility for childcare. Moreover, our findings suggest that existing theoretical explanations in the literature are insufficient to fully explain the barriers refugee women face when entering the labor market.

Are women more financially vulnerable than men? A tale of missed economic opportunities from Latin America

AbstractMotivationWomen are especially vulnerable to not being able to cover the costs of living or meet sudden demands for funds to pay for emergencies (financial vulnerability). The COVID‐19 pandemic put additional stress on household incomes and the ability to meet emergency expenses, thus bringing into sharp relief the lack of inclusion of women in formal financial systems and the gender gaps between them and men.PurposeHow financially vulnerable are women in Latin America? What causes vulnerability? How do financial inclusion, personality traits, cognitive characteristics, and financial literacy affect financial vulnerability?Methods and approachUsing Financial Capabilities Surveys, we use regression to model the determinants of an index of financial vulnerability for eight countries in Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Peru. We use Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition to establish the extent to which the gender arises from the different characteristics of men and women, or from the way in which such characteristics affect groups.FindingsWe find a gender gap in financial vulnerability in most of the eight countries. Individual characteristics that often explain this gap are socioeconomic, such as belonging to a low socioeconomic class and not having a regular income. In addition to gender and socioeconomic characteristics, the use of savings products, some personality traits (ability to plan, self‐control), economic preferences, and numeracy skills also drive financial vulnerability.Policy implicationsInterventions to reduce financial vulnerability need, first and foremost, to address socioeconomic conditions. People on low incomes will always be financially vulnerable. In addition, programmes to expand financial inclusion and educate people on finances can help. Given the significant gender gaps, more effort must be made to reduce such gaps in education, employment, and social norms.

Care Work and the Careers of Educated Women: Role of the Care Diamond in India

The data on women’s education and labour force participation in India suggests that though the gender gap in education (particularly higher education) has almost disappeared, the gender gap in employment remains significant. The paper links the burden of double responsibility (paid work plus unpaid ‘care work’) with the low labour force participation rates among the highly educated women in urban India. Based on primary and secondary sources, the paper analyses the lived experiences of women who had to either leave their careers or who continued by managing to balance the two sets of responsibilities. Interrogating the care diamond in India, the essay examines two recent provisions of the government of India for working mothers – an increase in Maternity Leave and the provision of Childcare Leave. It finds that though these provisions seem to be in the right direction as they bring recognition to the care burden of employees, given the prevailing social norms on gender roles, they are insufficient (in their present form) to bring gender parity in the labour market.

Integration in the global value chain, structural change, and the widening gender employment gap in China

Despite the structural change toward services that are generally beneficial for female employment, China's gender employment gap (GEG) has widened by 9.64% in the past two decades, 2000–2020, indicated by the labor force participation rate (LFP) of males minus that of females. This study distinguishes domestic demand and different types of global value chain (GVC) related demand under the inter-country input–output framework, and propose a new gender gap decomposition model to explore the evolution of China's GEG from a demand-side perspective. Our results show that GVC-related activities contributed to the widening of China's GEG by less than 0.60% between 2000 and 2020. In contrast, increasing gender discrimination toward females and technological progress with a rapid decrease in employment when producing the same amount of output in most female-intensive sectors are the dominant reasons behind the widening of China's GEG. This study provides some implications for promoting high-quality employment development in China.

Opening to the outside world, Industrial upgrading and Labor market integration: An empirical study of Chinese data from the perspective of enterprise ownership structure

Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper studies the impact of opening to the outside world on labor market integration under the mechanism of industrial structure upgrading from the perspective of enterprise ownership structure. The findings are as follows: (1) the increase in opening to the outside world significantly reduces the average wage gap and employment gap between state-owned and non-state-owned sectors, which contributes to the integration of the Chinese labor market; (2) The level of opening to the outside world has a significant effect on the upgrading of industrial structure, industrial upgrading is a mechanism of opening to the outside world affecting our labor market integration; (3) The effect of the level of opening to the outside world on labor market integration has obvious regional characteristics. The findings of this paper have important implications for understanding the relationship between opening to the outside world and labor market integration from the perspective of different enterprise ownership structures and the mechanism of industrial structure upgrading.

From gender equality to household earnings equality: The role of women’s labour market outcomes across OECD countries

We assess the impact that full gender equality in the labour market would have on earnings inequality between households, and then decompose that impact by looking separately at the roles played by gender gaps in employment, hours, and pay. We do this by applying a reweighting method to LIS data for 22 OECD countries, across North America, Europe, and Australia. We find that full equality in earnings and employment between women and men would reduce household earnings inequality considerably, with the most substantial reductions coming from closing the gender gap in employment as opposed to closing the gaps in pay and hours worked. A 10% counterfactual decrease in the gender employment gap (relative to the country baseline) is associated with an average 0.6% decline in the Gini for household earnings inequality. Reducing the gender employment gap is thus the pathway through which greater gender equality may most strongly mitigate overall earnings inequality among households: these two key goals for contemporary societies can be pursued simultaneously.

Employment trajectories of workers in low-skilled jobs in Western Germany

According to the segmentation theory, low-skilled jobs belong to the secondary sector of the labour market. Low-skilled jobs do not require vocational training and workers are interchangeable. Therefore, workers in this sector have poor working conditions and are regularly affected by employment interruptions. The current state of research, however, does not provide any longitudinal information about individual employment stability of workers performing low-skilled jobs. Furthermore, most of these workers are employed full-time and have completed professional training. Against this background, this paper deals with employment trajectories of workers in low-skilled jobs and their changes over time with regard to standard employment relationship. The aim of the explorative study is to analyse the assignment of workers in low-skilled jobs within the segmentation theory and to determine how segments have changed over time.We use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) to analyse the employment trajectories of two cohorts aged 35 to 44 years in Western Germany over a period of ten years. The employment trajectories are compared by means of sequence analysis with optimal matching algorithm as well as cluster analysis applying the “Partitioning Around Medoids” method (PAM) in combination with results from hierarchical ward clusters. The employment trajectories indicate that low-skilled jobs can be assigned to both the secondary and the primary sectors. The cohort comparison of employment trajectories shows change and continuity in the context of segments.

Understanding the racial employment gap: The role of sectoral shifts

The employment rate for Black men worsened significantly relative to White men during the second half of the 20th century. We explore the role of broad sectoral shifts in labor demand over this period in explaining this trend. We first quantify changes in local employment rates and population in response to local labor demand shifts for both groups of workers. We then combine our estimates with a stylized model that incorporates frictional local labor markets and imperfect mobility across markets. Our framework enables us to aggregate local responses while accounting for geographic mobility and regional employment composition. We find that sectoral reallocation can account for at most, one-fifth of the total exacerbation in the employment rate differential between Black and White men over 1970–2010. Out-migration from harder-hit markets, while large, only slightly mitigates the impact of negative labor demand shifts. We also find that most of the predicted change in the employment rate differential is due to differential response rather than differential exposure to sectoral shifts across groups.

Parental Leave Policies, Usage Consequences, and Changing Normative Beliefs: Evidence From a Survey Experiment

In this study, we conceptualize and provide novel empirical evidence on norm-setting effects of family policies by investigating how priming with parental leave policy–related information may alter normative beliefs regarding the gender division of parental leave in Germany. We implemented a survey experiment in two waves of the representative German GESIS Panel in 2019 and 2020. Respondents received one of three short evidence-based information primers about (1) long-term income risks of maternal employment interruptions, (2) nonsignificant paternal wage penalties, or (3) increasing rates of paternal leave usage in Germany, or were allocated to the control group that received no further information before rating the division of parental leave in fictitious couples. We apply ordinary least squares regression models with lagged dependent variables to a sample of 5,362 vignette evaluations nested in 1,548 respondents. Remarkably, we find that the effects of all three priming conditions vary significantly depending on whether respondents are asked to judge situations for couples where women earn more or less than their partners. Our findings mostly point to stronger effects of priming with information on income risks compared with paternal leave usage trends and to more pronounced changes in normative beliefs among childless respondents.

Reproductive Challenges of Chinese Females---From Economic and Health Perspectives

Gender inequality has always been prevalent in China in the areas of economics, education, health, and politics. Ranked the 39th out of 189 countries on the Gender Inequality Index of the United Nations Development Program, China has persisting gender wage gap--- females earnings are roughly 71.5% of males. During the reproduction process where both genders undertake different physiological and social roles, inequality concerning wage, employment, social welfare, and healthcare exists. The study explores socioeconomic and health inequalities faced by Chinese females during the reproduction process compared to their male counterparts, including wage disparities, unemployment, downward job transfers, postpartum mental disorders, and physical health issues. The paper shows that the gender pay gap has been persistent in China in recent decades and demonstrates an ascending trend regarding the childbearing and child-caring periods. There is also a persistent employment gap between both genders, which worsens particularly after reproduction. The career positions of Chinese females are negatively influenced by motherhood. Besides socioeconomic status, research demonstrates a high level of postpartum depression and physical disorders in new moms. Last but not least, the study aims to carry out feasible approaches to cure inequalities during the reproduction process, guaranteeing females sufficient access to broad social welfare.

The need for a gender-responsive approach to technology design and development to ensure that new technologies do not reproduce or exacerbate existing gender inequalities

The role of technology in promoting gender equality has gained significant attention in recent years. Technological innovations have the potential to create new opportunities for women and girls, bridge gender gaps in education and employment, and improve access to healthcare and other essential services. However, there are also concerns that technology may exacerbate existing gender inequalities, particularly in the digital divide and online harassment. This research paper explores the ways in which technology and innovation can be leveraged to promote gender equality and mitigate potential risks. It reviews the current state of the digital divide, online harassment, and the representation of women in technology, and identifies strategies and initiatives that are being implemented to promote gender equality in the digital age

Gender gaps in South Korea’s labour market: children explain most of the gender employment gap, but little of the gender wage gap

ABSTRACT South Korea’s gender wage and employment gaps are among the largest in the OECD. Using labour force survey data over 2010–19, we estimate gender wage and employment gaps, and child earnings penalties, for women aged 25–54. We show (i) that the large gender gaps in South Korea’s labour market are mostly not a function of differential sorting by gender along education, occupation, or industry lines, (ii) that caring for children (and, perhaps increasingly, for the elderly) is the major factor inhibiting women’s labour force participation, and (iii) that large gender wage gaps exist even for women without care responsibilities. These findings suggest that improving opportunities for work–family balance is crucial to helping increase women’s labour force participation, but may do little to close gender wage gaps: other major obstacles also appear to stand in the way of Korean women’s full inclusion in the labour force.

Remote Schooling and Mothers’ Employment During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Race, Education, and Marital Status

Public schools in the United States saw unprecedented reductions to in-person instruction during the 2020–2021 school year. Using the Elementary School Operating Status database, the American Community Survey, and the Current Population Survey, we show remote instruction was associated with reduced employment among mothers compared with fathers and women without children. The gender gap in employment between mothers and fathers grew as much as 5 percentage points in areas with remote instruction. Compared to women without children, mothers’ employment fell by as much as 2 percentage points under remote schooling. Employment disparities among mothers deepened by race, educational attainment, and marital status. We show employment disparities endured through spring 2021, even as many school districts returned to in-person instruction.