Improve Labor Market Research Articles

Bibliometric Mapping of Employment Deprivation

Employment Deprivation encompasses more than unemployment and underemployment, highlighting systemic barriers to stable work. This research employs bibliometric analysis to explore its multifaceted nature, revealing significant psychological, economic, and social impacts on marginalized groups. Through mapping global scholarly contributions, it identifies key authors, countries, and seminal works and uncovers research gaps and trends. The study emphasizes the roles of race, gender, disability, and socioeconomic status in labour market outcomes, revealing the limitations of conventional unemployment metrics in fully capturing labour market outcomes. The concept of employment deprivation is proposed to address these gaps, advocating for policies that not only focus on job creation but also improve the quality of work and promote labour market inclusivity. The study demonstrates how inadequate measures of unemployment often overlook systemic challenges faced by vulnerable populations, such as access to stable employment, equitable wages, and job security. It underscores the psychological toll of prolonged employment deprivation, including the impacts on mental health, well-being, and community stability. Additionally, it explores labour market dynamics and the importance of education and skill development in improving employment outcomes. Ultimately, this research seeks to inform and influence policy interventions aimed at fostering inclusive economics growth and improving labour market conditions for marginalized populations. By offering a nuanced understanding of the systemic challenges related to employment deprivation, the study advocates for policies that not only address job creation but also enhance job quality, inclusivity, and long-term well-being for vulnerable groups.

Team Primary Care: Training for Transformation in Canada

To address the growing crisis in primary care access and sustainability in Canada, Team Primary Care brings together 65+ health professional organizations to enhance the capacity of interprofessional, comprehensive primary care through improved training for practitioners, supports for teams and tools for planners and employers.
 Team Primary Care targets the primary care workforce including family physicians, primary care nurse practitioners, family practice nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, mental health practitioners, traditional Indigenous Healers, and others. The project focuses on those involved in the training of the primary care workforce, including funders, accreditors, learning organizations, health professional associations and government.
 Team Primary Care endeavours to enhance interprofessional comprehensive primary care training; improve labour market integration for Indigenous and internationally educated practitioners, maximizing their utilization; create enabling environments for diverse, healthy, and resilient team members to practice at their optimal scope and capacity; and demonstrate, spread and scale leading integrated primary care workforce planning practices, tools, and resources.
 To date, Team Primary Care has launched eight primary care practitioner specific curricular development projects in parallel with workplace integrated learning demonstration projects, offered team-based training for primary care teams using cross cutting tools and supports to enhance interprofessional, equitable and inclusive, culturally safe care aimed at improving access to care and provider well-being. By March 2023 we anticipate an additional 12 curricular projects and 20+ demonstration projects will be ready for implementation. Unique to this project is its integrative approach and intentional change strategy that has been embedded in its design. In addition, an extensive process, outcome, and meta evaluation will have been carried out throughout the length of the project. Between now and March 2023, the aim is for the project to enhance primary care capacity enabling more Canadians to have access to an integrated primary care workforce that is inclusive of a broader range of practitioners working in teams that embed the principles of interprofessionalism, equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility, psychological health and safety, reconciliation, and social accountability through enhanced and aligned training.
 The integrative and inclusive approach taken by Team Primary Care provides a unique country-wide case study of how to rapidly use education as a vehicle to quickly catalyze practice reform in primary care. Shifting the mental model towards team-based care inclusive of a broad range of primacy care practitioners committed to the delivery of comprehensive primary care was a major focus of the communication plan used. The cross-cutting tools developed are transferable to teams included but not limited to primary care and for both the Canadian context and beyond.
 The development of a sustainable interprofessional primary care training table is envisioned with a repository of team training tools and resources for use by a prepared primary care workforce prepared to scale and spread team-based care across the healthcare system. This case study will offer learned lessons on how education can be a critical enabler for primary care system reform.

Job Opportunities and Labour Market Participation: A Case Study of Jammu City, India

The study explores the scope of job opportunities and labour market participation of youth in Jammu City, India. In recent years, India has observed significant changes in its economic conditions and the study provides an understanding of different aspects of job opportunities and labour market participation at the regional level and helps in framing informed policy decisions. The study uses a mixed-method approach, combining quantitative data analysis to find the relationship between the variables and qualitative interviews with local respondents. Quantitative analysis examines employment trends in various occupational sectors and the impact of education and gender on labour market participation. Qualitative interviews provide insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by respondents for labour market participation in Jammu City. The paper discusses educational attainment, the relationship between labour market participation and insufficient job opportunities, transition patterns, educational and working status. The study reveals that Jammu City's labour market is diverse, in both general and vocational educational respondents and factors such as education, job opportunities, gender and geographic location influence labour market participation. Moreover, the study reveals large participation of respondents in informal jobs and self-employment due to the lack of government jobs and the worse political situation of the state. The study draws implications for policymakers to promote inclusive economic growth and improve labour market outcomes in this region. Furthermore, research and policy measures also address the complexities of job opportunities and labour market participation in Jammu City which ultimately enhances the overall socio-economic well-being of the study area.

Changing the mindsets? Education and the intergenerational spread of tolerance for physical violence against women in Zimbabwe

We investigate the relationship between childhood exposure to interparental violence and adult tolerance for violent beliefs against women. For individuals who have witnessed parental violence in childhood, our analysis suggests a 14.3–15.2 percentage point (pp) increase in tolerance, highlighting the transmission of violent beliefs across generations. Leveraging Zimbabwe’s 1980 education reform as a natural experiment through a regression discontinuity design, we explore the potential of increased education to disrupt this intergenerational transmission. The reform led to an approximately two-year increase in female education, with a more pronounced impact in rural areas. This educational boost is associated with an estimated 4.1–7.9 pp reduction in tolerance for violence, especially among those who witnessed parental violence in childhood. We identify four primary mechanisms contributing to this reduction in tolerance: enhanced access to information, increased help-seeking behaviours, improved labour market outcomes, and higher educational levels among partners. Our findings underscore the effectiveness of educational policies in reducing tolerance for violence against women within low-income contexts such as Zimbabwe, thereby disrupting its intergenerational transmission. Moreover, these results emphasise the potential of education-based interventions in addressing the broader issue of violence against women in low-income countries.

Active Labour Market Policies: What Works for the Long-Term Unemployed?

Abstract There is still a lack of knowledge on how to effectively help the long-term unemployed into employment. We evaluate a wide range of active labour market policies for this target group, using a dynamic matching approach. Measures vary considerably in the extent to which they improve labour market prospects. Human capital-intensive training programs that substantially enhance vocational skills and employment programs are most effective, short activating job search training the least. Our results suggest that not only wage subsidies in the private sector, but also direct job creation in the public and non-profit sectors can work, if properly designed.

On the effects of active labour market policies among individuals reporting to have severe mental health problems

AbstractOn the one hand, unemployment is known to have detrimental effects on individuals' mental health. On the other hand, poor mental health reduces re‐employment chances quite drastically, creating a vicious cycle. Active labour market policies (ALMPs) such as training programs or wage subsidies have been shown to ameliorate negative effects on mental health and improve labour market integration on average for the general unemployed population. In the context of individuals with severe mental health issues, however, it is unclear whether these interventions can be expected to deliver similar positive effects. In fact, one may argue that they have the potential to worsen employment prospects of individuals by adding additional stress to their pre‐existing mental health problems. Hence, this paper estimates the long‐term causal effects of ALMPs on the labour market integration of individuals with self‐reported severe mental health issues and compares estimates to individuals without such issues using unique combined survey and administrative data. Effects are estimated using the innovative double machine learning method and show that ALMPs do not only improve labour market integration of unemployed individuals with severe mental health issues, but they do so more effectively than for other unemployed individuals.

Does geographical exposure to language learning centres affect language skills and labour market outcomes in a bilingual city?

In this paper, we investigate the effects of geographical exposure to local language training centres in a bilingual urban labour market, the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, exploiting the implementation of a language policy that provided publicly subsidized language courses for adults. Our variable of interest consists in a measure of spatial availability of language schools that captures potential exposure and its expansion over time. First, we focus on the formation of local language skills, adopting a reduced-form approach. Our results indicate that exposure to language learning opportunities has a positive but quantitatively modest effect on local language skills, since individuals residing in neighbourhoods with a higher supply of language centres are more likely to be able to speak and write in Catalan. The effect is very robust to falsification exercises and several sensitivity checks and is driven by younger individuals, and especially by those who were born in Catalonia. Second, we analyse whether accessibility to language centres also affects employment, working hours, employment sector, and occupation. Our results indicate that, although skills in Catalan are positively and significantly associated with improved labour market outcomes, spatial accessibility to language centres is not directly related to any of them. This lack of effect is possibly due to the fact that the impact of geographical exposure on language skills is too small in size to improve performance in the local labour market.

Multidisciplinary interventions increase weekly working hours and quality of life in persons with post-concussion syndrome

ABSTRACT Objectives To improve labor market attachment, general health and quality of life in persons suffering from post-concussion syndrome. Labor market attachment often changes after mTBI, and especially in persons suffering from post-concussion syndrome, and constitutes a huge societal burden. Methods Eighty-two adults with persistent post-concussion syndrome participated in this single-center and uncontrolled interventional efficacy open-label investigation. The primary endpoint was to increase weekly working hours. Outcome measures ranged from self-reported cognitive symptoms to objective performance testing. Multidisciplinary interventions were used to reduce symptoms of fatigue, stress, pain, oculomotor malfunction, and sensitivity to both sound and light. Results Workhours improved from median 0 to 6 hours (p = 0.00002). Several significant improvements were observed in quality of life measured by the SF-36. General fatigue measured by the MFI-20 was reduced (p < 0.0001), and symptoms of depression were reduced (p < 0.0001). The COPM results were improved for task completion satisfaction and for ability to perform a task (p < 0.0001). Reading speed, and performances in the Groffman Visual Tracing Test and the King-Devick Test, all improved (p < 0.01). The intervention did not reduce perception of pain intensity (p = 0.11). Conclusion After the intervention, participants increased weekly workhours and improved in many aspects of life – including quality of life, performance in everyday activities, fatigue and depression. Perception of pain intensity was not improved.

The impact of education on improving labour market outcomes in developing countries – evidence from Kosovo

ABSTRACT In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in studying the relationship between education and its impacts on the labour market. While the relationship between education and wages has been extensively researched, the empirical evidence regarding employment opportunities remains poor. In this article, we examine the impact of education in improving labour market outcomes of working-age individuals in Kosovo, emphasizing its role in the probability of employment. Our analysis is based on an extensive dataset compiled from Kosovo Labour Force Survey for 2015, 2016 and 2017, which includes more than 75 thousand observations. Using the probit model, we analyse the impact of education on the probability of employment and labour force participation in Kosovo. Our findings show that, relative to those with no formal education, the likelihood of being employed increases by 26.9% for individuals with primary education, while for those with secondary and tertiary education, the likelihood increases by 55 and 76.6%, respectively. We see these significant changes in employment opportunities due to education as significant returns to investment in education that have driven the increasing trends in educational enrolment in recent years.

Economic Booms and Recidivism

ObjectivesThis paper examines the impact of local economic activity on criminal behavior. We build on existing research by relaxing the identification assumptions required for causal inference, and estimate the impact of local economic activity on recidivism.MethodsWe use the fracking boom as a source of credibly exogenous variation in the economic conditions into which incarcerated people are released. We replicate and extend existing instrumental variables analyses of fracking on how many released offenders return to state prison seperately from aggregate crime and arrests.ResultsOur instrumental variables estimates imply that a ten thousand dollar increase in the value of per capita production is associated with a 2.8% reduction in the 1-year recidivism of ex-offenders at the county level. Improved labor market conditions, specifically an increase in wages for young adults, may explain a non-negligible fraction of the reduction in recidivism associated with economic booms. In contrast, we replicate existing work finding that fracking increased aggregate measures of crime and arrests.ConclusionIncreased economic opportunity appears to have a different impact of overall crime than on recidivism. This suggests that the relationship between economic opportunity and offending may be conditioned by local social ties. Further research examining how social connections and labor markets affect individual criminal behavior is needed.

Analysis on Location Choice of China's OFDI in RCEP Countries

Based on the panel data of RCEP countries from 2007 to 2021, this article analyzes the location choice of China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in RCEP countries. The results show that China's OFDI to RCEP countries is influenced by many factors. The market size and labor force of the host country significantly promote it, while the host country’s tax burden and natural resource endowment significantly inhibit it. In order to better leverage the advantages of the RCEP, China should take a more active role in implementing the RCEP, improving labor market security system, optimizing its investment in RCEP countries, and actively integrating into the host society.

Information, Mobile Communication, and Referral Effects

This paper uses the universe of cellphone records from a Chinese telecommunication provider for a northern Chinese city to examine the role of information exchange in urban labor markets. We provide the first direct evidence of increased communication among referral pairs around job changes. Information provided by social contacts mitigates information asymmetry and improves labor market performance. (JEL D82, J62, O18, P23, P25, R23, Z13)

The association between obesity, health service use, and work productivity in Australia: a cross-sectional quantile regression analysis

The burden of disease attributable to obesity is rapidly increasing and becoming a public health challenge globally. Using a nationally representative sample in Australia, this study aims to examine the association of obesity with healthcare service use and work productivity across outcome distributions. We used Household, Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) Wave 17 (2017–2018), including 11,211 participants aged between 20 and 65 years. Two-part models using multivariable logistic regressions and quantile regressions were employed to understand variations in the association between obesity levels and the outcomes. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 35.0% and 27.6%, respectively. After adjusting for socio-demographic factors, low socioeconomic status was associated with a higher probability of overweight and obesity (Obese III: OR = 3.79; 95% CI 2.53–5.68) while high education group was associated with a lower likelihood of being high level of obesity (Obese III OR = 0.42, 95% CI 0.29–0.59). Higher levels of obesity were associated with higher probability of health service use (GP visit Obese, III: OR = 1.42 95% CI 1.04–1.93,) and work productivity loss (number of paid sick leave days, Obese III: OR = 2.40 95% CI 1.94–2.96), compared with normal weight. The impacts of obesity on health service use and work productivity were larger for those with higher percentiles compared to lower percentiles. Overweight and obesity are associated with greater healthcare utilisation, and loss in work productivity in Australia. Australia’s healthcare system should prioritise interventions to prevent overweight and obesity to reduce the cost on individuals and improve labour market outcomes.

Workplace accommodations during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review of the impacts and implications for people with disabilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread changes in the way people work. Some of these changes represent the same kinds of work modifications or adjustments that have often been requested as workplace accommodations, and which may improve labour market and employment outcomes for people with disabilities. The aim of this scoping review was to examine the literature on workplace accommodations in the pandemic and their impacts and implications for people with disabilities. Following a search of six international databases, articles were selected by two reviewers, and data were abstracted in accordance with scoping review methodology. A thematic analysis was used to report the relevant findings. Thirty-seven articles met the inclusion criteria, and three main themes were identified: positive impacts of pandemic-related workplace accommodations on people with disabilities (e.g., improved accessibility, reduced stigma around workplace accommodations, rapid implementation of workplace accommodations, opportunities for advocacy); negative impacts (e.g., worsened physical and mental health, new accommodation needs); and action needed and recommendations (e.g., revisit legislation and policy on accommodations, ensure representation of people with disabilities). Overall, our review identified a mixed assessment of the impacts of pandemic-related accommodations on people with disabilities. However, there was a broader consensus regarding the importance of learning from the experiences of the pandemic to improve workplace accommodation policies in the future. The pandemic may present opportunities for improving workplace accommodation policies, but our review also highlights the need for more research examining how workplace changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted people with disabilities.

Money demand by firms, labor market frictions, and optimal long-run inflation

Abstract Optimal monetary policy, under flexible and sticky prices, and sticky nominal wages are studied in the canonical matching model of the labor market with a working capital channel. A money demand by firms is motivated by the fact that a significant amount of M1 is held by firms. As a result of the working capital, the Ramsey-optimal monetary policy calls for inflation when employment is above the socially efficient level and for deflation when it is below that level. This result holds under flexible wages as well as nominal wage rigidities. In other words, to improve labor market efficiency, deflation is necessary to “grease the wheels of the labor market.” Although there is no relationship between optimal monetary policy and the market tightness under flexible prices, a long-run and mainly negative relationship between the optimal inflation rate and the equilibrium tightness emerges under sticky prices.

Are ethnic employment penalties mitigated in deprived neighbourhoods and in ethnically dense neighbourhoods?

AbstractExisting research has extensively documented that those living in the most deprived neighbourhoods and individuals from some ethnic minority groups have low rates of labour market participation in the United Kingdom. This paper brings together these two established areas of research to ask whether ethnic minority groups have better employment participation when living in more deprived neighbourhoods. We hypothesise that this could be due to different socialisation processes enabling ethnic minorities to secure employment more easily in deprived neighbourhoods as well as in neighbourhoods where there is greater ethnic density. Data from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study in England are linked to the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2014 and the 2011 Census to model unemployment and economic inactivity between 2009 and 2019 separately for women and men. The results show that some ethnic minority groups face disadvantage in the labour market, especially Pakistani and Bangladeshi women. There is little support to suggest that these penalties are lessened in more deprived neighbourhoods or in more ethnically dense neighbourhoods. There is some suggestion that groups who do not face ethnic penalties compared with the White British group have lower rates of unemployment and economic inactivity in more deprived neighbourhoods. We suggest policies aimed at improving labour market outcomes for disadvantaged ethnic minorities should target them wherever they live.

The Effects of High School Career and Technical Education on Employment, Wages, and Educational Attainment

I investigate the effects of high school career and technical education (CTE) on later-life outcomes by constructing a dynamic structural model that instruments for curricula choice using variation in CTE opportunities and local labor market controls. Estimates derived from national longitudinal data suggest that trade CTE, relative to general education and business CTE, improves wages and employment opportunities while increasing high school graduation but decreasing university graduation propensities. Policy simulations suggest that incorporating vocational certification into CTE would improve labor market outcomes. Simulations also suggest that strict high school tracking would increase the dropout rate but improve outcomes for graduates at the expense of their high school utility.

Labor Market Outcomes of Vocational High Schools (SMK) and General High Schools (SMA) during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The fourth Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopts a lifelong learning approach to education and introduces vocational and tertiary education into the global agenda. While Vocational Education and Training (VET) was almost absent in previous international development frameworks, the agenda 2030 and its SDGs highlight greater importance to it. Consequently, many governments in developing countries promote vocational secondary education to improve labor market outcomes. This study aimed to determine the development of return on investment for Vocational High Schools (SMK) and Senior High Schools (SMA) in 2020. The data used the August 2020 National Labor Force Survey (SAKERNAS) data with Two-Step Heckman and the Mincer Revenue Function. As a result, in 2020, the return on investment in vocational education was 16.82% higher than the rate of return on investment in high school education. However, observed by the age group, the results show that SMK only provides an initial wage advantage for men, which then declines with age. Although male SMK graduates experienced poorer results, female SMK graduates did not experience the same decline.

Development of new towns in Poland. A case study of local labor markets.

The article attempts to assess the effect that obtaining urban status has on changes in the local labor markets of new towns. The analysis concerned those towns that were granted urban status for the first time between 1990 (the beginning of the transition to a market economy) and 2020. The analysis and research results did not show any significant correlation between the obtaining of urban status and improving labor market conditions. Despite the increase in entrepreneurship and the greater mobility of incoming employees, the localities did not become more attractive locations for medium-sized and large enterprises. Work-related population flows did not undergo major transformations and the range of influence of local labor markets was still mainly limited to the new towns’ own gminas, which together with the directly neighboring gminas formed functional urban areas that nonetheless rarely exceeded the boundaries of the poviat.

10.Q. Workshop: Imbalance in use and impact of public psychotherapy – A Finnish working-age population register study

Abstract Mental disorders are globally among the leading causes of disability in the working-age population. Psychotherapies have proven to be effective in the improvement of mental health. The current evidence on the benefits of psychotherapies is mainly based on randomized control trials and patient-reported outcomes, whereas the potential impact of long-term psychological therapy on work disability and income is not so well known. This emphasizes the need for longitudinal studies on the effects of psychological therapies in a ‘real-world study setting’, and on the distribution of the availability and the use of psychological therapies in different populations. In Finland, rehabilitative psychotherapy is the major single form of publicly provided psychological therapy. It is targeted at those aged 16 to 67 who are at risk of disability or not being able to study because of mental health problems. It is granted an annual period (maximum three years), a maximum of 80 sessions per year and 200 sessions per 3 years. From 2011 on this psychotherapy has been statutorily granted to all at risk of work disability due mental health disorders. The number of annual users has increased from 15 757 (2010) to 56 682 (2020). This workshop presents the results from a research project investigating the use and real-world effects of long-term psychotherapy in the Finnish working-age population in the 2010s. It shows 1) whether the use of psychotherapy is associated with subsequent work disability and labour market outcomes (income, employment), 2) how the use of long-term psychotherapy differed between socio-demographic groups in the 2010s in Finland, and 3) the extent to which state-subsidized psychotherapy is linked to the distinctive profiles of mental health problems in the population. The five presentations offer new results from the Rise of Mental Vulnerability in Work Life Study drawn from the national registers. The presentations are mostly based on three randomly selected population cohorts which each included 33% of the 18-64-year-old permanent Finnish residents at the baseline. These data were sampled (sampling years: 2010, 2013, 2016) by and derived from the Population Register maintained by Statistics Finland and included information on various socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, occupation class, region, income). These were linked to the national health registers. Information on reimbursed psychotherapy and mental health indicators (sickness absence, psychotropic drugs, disability benefits) were obtained from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland and complemented by the disability pension data from the Finnish Centre for Pensions. The data provide a unique opportunity to observe how the use of state-subsidized long-term psychotherapy was distributed across population groups in the 2010s, and to the extent to which disability trajectories and economic outcomes have developed in different groups during and after psychotherapeutic treatment. Key messages • Psychotherapy is likely to decrease the risk of work disability and improve labour market outcomes. • The provision of long-term psychotherapy is related to social inequality in the working population.