Increased Labour Market Participation Research Articles

Bringing Incapacity Benefit numbers down: to what extent do women need a different approach?

The dominant narrative used to explain the big rise in Incapacity Benefit (IB) numbers across Britain is essentially about men. The collapse of male employment in older industries, mostly in the North, Scotland and Wales, led to the emergence of a cohort of mainly older, less healthy men who accessed IB instead of unemployment benefits. What this overlooks is that among the under-60s the number of women claiming IB now almost equals the number of men. In view of the long-term increase in employment opportunities for women, the similarity in IB numbers is at first sight surprising. Does this mean that bringing down the number of women on IB requires a different approach? The article draws on evidence from a survey of men and women claiming IB, in-depth interviews with claimants and professional stakeholders and secondary data analysis. The identical geography of male and female IB claimants suggests that a weak aggregate demand for labour is through time transmitted, via labour market sorting processes, to exclude from employment the most disadvantaged in terms of skills and health, irrespective of gender. The article highlights important similarities between the men and women claiming IB but also a number of distinctive issues affecting women, including the roles of increased labour market participation, lone parenthood and the impact of benefit rules. It is concluded that a package of economic regeneration and supply-side interventions will bring down the number of both men and women claiming IB.

Landless but not assetless: female agricultural labour on the road to better status, evidence from India

Women's share of agricultural wage employment is rising across the Indian sub-continent. Studies examining this process of feminisation tend to be divided along the lines of an ideological debate following either the ‘poverty-push’ or the ‘demand-pull’ argument. This debate, however, has largely ignored the institution of patriarchy. In this study we revisit the debate with a focus on gender relations. The study is based on data collected from 291 households in the state of Andhra Pradesh. We find that, despite increased labour market participation, women's household status, her wages and working conditions remain acutely depressed. Women labourers with access to productive assets, however, are effectively expanding their agency within both the household and the labour market. Their experiences, we argue, have implications for transformative policies.

GRADUAL RETIREMENT: PREFERENCES AND LIMITATIONS.

In the traditional retirement scenario, individuals work full-time or part-time until a given age, and then stop working abruptly. From the individual's point of view, it seems more attractive to have a smooth transition, with gradual retirement. In Sweden and other European countries, specific gradual retirement programs have been created in the past 20 years, first in combination with early retirement programs and later to increase labour market participation of older workers. This paper surveys the existing literature on gradual retirement in the US and Europe and analyzes the relevance of gradual retirement in the Netherlands as a tool to keep people employed longer.

Gender equity and fertility intentions in Italy and the Netherlands

Fertility levels have fallen drastically in most industrialized countries. Diverse theoretical and empirical frameworks have had difficulty in explaining these unprecedented low levels of fertility. More recently, however, attention has turned from classic explanations, such as women’s increased labour market participation, to gender equity as the essential link to understand this phenomenon. The increase in women’s labour market participation did not prompt an increase in men’s domestic duties, which is often referred to women’s ‘dual burden’ or ‘second shift’. Institutions and policies within countries also facilitate or constrain the combination of women’s employment with fertility. This paper provides an empirical test of gender equity theory by examining whether the unequal division of household labour leads to lower fertility intentions of women in different institutional contexts. Italy constitutes a case of high gender inequity, low female labour market participation and the lowest-low fertility. The Netherlands has moderate to low gender inequity, high part-time female labour market participation and comparatively higher fertility. Using data from the 2003 Italian Multipurpose Survey - Family and Social Actors and the 2004/5 Dutch sample from the European Social Survey, a series of logistic regression models test this theory. A central finding is that the unequal division of household labour only has a significant impact on women’s fertility intentions when they already carry the load of high paid work hours or children, a finding that is particularly significant for working women in Italy.

Education through Production and its Potential Value for Young People De-motivated with Their Schooling

The purpose of the present paper is to investigate and explore why education organised around production may seem meaningful to youngsters who are at risk with leaving the traditional school and educational system. Education organised around production is here defined as educational activities organised by the state authorities or other educational providers which take outset in producing goods to be sold to real customers outside the school. It is becoming increasingly important to consider learning arrangements for youth “at risk” because access to training and education is acknowledged as a key to ensuring social inclusion and increased labour market participation. This is particularly relevant for groups that have traditionally been excluded from, or marginalised in the labour market (Piercy, Murray & Abernethy, 2006). Based on a broader project conducted in Northern Jutland, Denmark, for “Youth at Risk”, the case-stories of three young people (Ivan, Daniella and Lisa) are presented, evaluated and discussed. Their experiences of dropping out of secondary and vocational school, and in the cases of Ivan and Lisa, of taking part in production-oriented education, are analysed. The results indicate the importance of closely monitored teacher and/or adult support for students “at risk”. Furthermore, the students’ perceptions that problems are real, self-owned and authentic facilitate a more general theoretical discussion of learning opportunities.

Combining Work and Care: Carers’ Decision‐making in the Context of Competing Policy Pressures

Abstract Issues related to paid work and care are of global importance, reflecting the twin pressures of population ageing and efforts to increase labour market participation. Informal carers of sick, disabled or older people can experience tensions between policies aimed at support for care and support for employment. This article discusses a study of carers’ decision‐making around work and care, drawing on evidence from interviews with 80 working‐age carers in England. Carers are not homogeneous; their circumstances and needs differ reflecting age, gender, ethnicity, labour market participation, and the condition and/or needs of the person they support. This diversity is illustrated by contrasting rural and urban carers’ decisions and experiences about work and care. Key factors that impact on carers’ decisions are: current and anticipated financial need; the constraints arising from receipt of carers’ and other means‐tested income maintenance benefits; personal identity; job opportunities and scope for flexibility; social services provision; carers’ own health. Distance, travel times and transport are unique additional challenges for rural carers who (wish to) work. These difficulties are further intensified when they intersect with other factors such as the Carer's Allowance, the local labour market and social services provision. The findings are evaluated in terms of the adequacy of current government policy measures.

Work‐life balance – the sources of the contemporary problem and the probable outcomes

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to consider why work‐life balance has become a major issue, and the likely outcomes of the widespread dissatisfaction with current work schedules.Design/methodology/approachThe article reviews international evidence on hours of work and time use, and the academic literature on employees’ attitudes towards their hours of work, and perceptions and complaints about work‐life imbalances.FindingsWorking time has not lengthened and complaints about time pressure are unrelated to hours actually worked. The sources of the widespread dissatisfaction with current work schedules will lie in a combination of other trends – increased labour market participation by women, work intensification, the spread of feelings of job insecurity, more work being done at odd hours, the spread of new information and communication technologies, free time increasing more slowly than spending power and aspirations, and relatively long hours becoming most common among employees (and the self‐employed) in higher status jobs. An outcome is unlikely to be a general downward trend in hours worked on account of the substantial opportunity costs that would often be incurred by employees, and because some (mainly middle class) employees have access to a number of effective coping strategies.Research limitations/implicationsNearly all the evidence considered (and available) is from Western countries.Practical implicationsRegulation of working time with the aim of delivering more acceptable work‐life balances needs to deliver flexibility (at employees' discretion) rather than any standard solution.Originality/valueThe article offers a synthesis of evidence from sources that are rarely drawn together – mainly labour market research, and leisure studies.

Feminization of Agricultural Labor and Women's Domestic Status: Evidence from Labor Households in India

Women's share of agricultural wage employment is rising across the Indian sub-continent. Studies examining this process of feminization tend to be divided along lines of an ideological debate following either the 'poverty-push' or the 'demand-pull' argument. This debate however has largely ignored the institution of patriarchy. This study revisits the debate with a focus on domestic gender relations. We find that, despite increased labor market participation, women's household status remains acutely depressed. Women laborers, with access to productive assets, however, are effectively reworking gender relations within and outside the household. Their experiences, we argue, have implications for transformative policies.

Women’s participation in education and training in New Zealand: is the ‘learn while you earn’ option accessible to all?

Strong education and training systems are viewed as a route to increased labour market participation for groups that have traditionally been excluded from, or marginalised in, the labour market. Engagement in the labour force for such groups has both individual and societal benefits. However, while this emphasis on an increased role for the state in education and training is encouraging, commentators have questioned the ability of ‘Third Way’ discourse to meet the unique needs of women, given the absence of explicit feminist dialogue in wider discussions on associated policy and practice. Informed by this critique, this article aims to evaluate changes in education and training policy and practice in New Zealand since 1999, in terms of the extent to which it enhances opportunities for women’s participation in education and training.

Social and family responsibility or self-interest?

Mothers’ increasing labour market participation is posed as a key aspect of a growing trend towards individualization — both for ill and for good. In ‘for ill’ versions, mothers’ employment is regarded as undermining commitment to family relationships and leading to a loss of community. In ‘for good’ versions, family and community relationships become contingent upon values of equality and respect. ‘Preference theory’ modifies the individualization thesis, with a posited distinction between mothers in full-time employment with ‘work-centred’ identities and those with part-time work who want ‘adaptive’ or ‘home-centred’ identities. This paper examines such issues, drawing on qualitative case study research on mothers employed full and part time in a hospital and an accountancy firm in the UK. It considers how the variable work ethos of organizations, and the ways mothers engage with these, can interact with their engagement in family and community relationships. In particular, it suggests that employment can be as much about social obligation in a local community, and commitment and obligations to family, as about individualized self-provision and options.

The Commodification of Lone Mothers' Labor: A comparison of US and German Policies

Drawing on Gøsta Esping-Andersen's concept of commodification of labor, as well as on its feminist critiques, this paper looks at policy effects on lone mothers in the US and in Germany. With increasing labor market participation rates among lone mothers in the US following welfare reform and in Germany following unification, the authors conclude that the changes derive from different policies and incentive structures related to the state of commodification of labor in each country. In the former East Germany, the policy regime of generous childcare benefits enabled the commodification of women's labor, while in West Germany, the established policy regime was dominated by a strong, voluntary commodification of women's labor, particularly that of lone mothers. In contrast, US policy has been characterized by its greater degree of precommodification of women's labor, which was followed, after the welfare reform of 1996, by the enforced commodification of women's labor.

Part-Time Work: Its Evolution and Results

This research paper analyses the characteristics of part-time work and its development in Europe. Special attention is given to Spain, where part-time work has not yet become fully established, as only 8% of the Spanish labour force are part-timers, as opposed to an average of 17% in Europe as a whole. The main reasons for the growth of part-time employment in Europe are discussed, including: the increasing labour market participation of women (more than a third of the women in employment in Europe work part-time); the drive towards a more flexible organization of work in industry; and the growth of the service sector, which currently accounts for 75% of all part-time workers in OECD countries. Some of the factors that have hindered the development of part-time work in Spain are highlighted, including: changes in the definition of part-time employment that have affected the relevant legal regulations; the level of earnings; employment security; lower expectations of career growth; the prevalence of temporary contracts; and the prevailing business culture.

Integration and social cohesion: The case of the Netherlands

The unemployment rate for most ethnic minorities in the Netherlands is higher than that of the host population. It is feared that ethnic minorities' low labour market participation will constrain the overall social cohesion of Dutch society. Increased labour market participation of ethnic minorities is therefore considered as the most effective way to reduce the number of claimants and increase their social integration. The two questions to be addressed in this paper are to what extent the labour market is accessible for ethnic minorities in the Netherlands and whether their increased participation in work increases the level of general socio-economic welfare. The available data suggest that social exclusion on the job market continues to be a widespread practice. In most cases increased labour participation has succeeded only due to the creation of low-paid jobs in the public sector. However, in these echelons increased participation hardly leads to an increase in individual welfare. The labour market intervention has thus resulted in the emergence of a social stratum of working poor. It is questionable whether this outcome strengthens intended social cohesion.

Gender, Segmentation and the Standard Employment Relationship in Canadian Labour Law, Legislation and Policy

Using gender as its analytic lens, this article examines segmentation in the Canadian labour market by focusing on the standard employment relationship. It illustrates how standard employment was crafted upon a speii gender division of paid and unpaid labour, the male breadwinner norm, and was only available to a narrow segment of workers. To this end, it traces how from the lOSOs the standard employment relationship ws supelemanted by a growth in jobs associated with, and filed pnrimaly by, women workers and it shows how women's increasing labour market participation in the late 196Os and early 1970s shaped demands for equality in employment policies. Since the 1 9SOs, a deterioration in the standard employment relationship has undermined both demands for and the basis of gender equality strategies and the article concludes by raising the question of the normative basis for regulating employment in order to Move towards strategies for reregulation.

The Increased Labour Market Participation of Dutch Students

Since the beginning of the 1980s students' labour market participation in the Netherlands has increased enormously. The first part of this article offers a description of the changed labour market position of students in the Netherlands. It demonstrates that this is the result both of changes in the system of student financing and of an increased use of flexible staffing arrangements by employers. The second part of the paper concentrates on the question whether the displacement of workers with lower levels of education was caused by an increasing labour market participation of students. It finds that the labour market participation of lower educated workers dropped at about the same time as students started to enter the lowest job levels, which were the former stronghold of the lower educated workers. Since many of the jobs at this level ask for part-time or temporary work, students have a competitive advantage in comparison to lower educated workers.

The Increased Labour Market Participation of Dutch Students

The Increased Labour Market Participation of Dutch Students

Growth in Women's Relative Wages and in Inequality Among Men: One Phenomenon or Two?

Although increased wage inequality among men during the past three decades has received more attention, the growth in women's wages has been equally remarkable. In fact, by one measure of inequality, the ninth-decile/median ratio, the proportional growth in inequality has moved in exact proportion with the female/male wage ratio. It is suggested that both result from expansion in the value of brains relative to brawn. There is no way of knowing the full story of growth in women's relative wages, and it is important not to dismiss the import of changing career patterns. As is evident in the panel data, increasing labor market participation must be important. So, too, are the implications that follow the movement of women from the home to the job.

Familiäre Arbeitsteilung - Versagt der ökonomische Erklärungsansatz? / The Division of Labour between Family Members - Is the Economic Approach Obsolete?

Zusammenfassung Die steigende Arbeitsmarktbeteiligung westdeutscher verheirateter Mütter wird in der Literatur als Element eines Prozesses der Despezialisierung der Geschlechter interpretiert, der durch den produktionstechnischen Ansatz der „Neuen Haushaltstheorie” nicht zu erklären sei. In diesem Beitrag wird dagegen die Erklärungskraft des produktionstheoretischen Ansatzes ausgelotet. Dazu wird ein lineares produktionstheoretisches Modell der intrafamilialen Allokation von Konsum und Arbeit entwickelt. Spezialisierungs- und Despezialisierungsprozesse im Familienzusammenhang werden als Resultate eines komplexen Zusammenwirkens von Restriktionen am Arbeitsmarkt, Konsumansprüchen und Eigenschaften der Konsumtechnologie des Haushalts modelliert. Dabei wird von einem mehrdimensionalen Zeitkonzept ausgegangen. Implikationen des verbundenen Konsums werden berücksichtigt. Die methodische Vorgehensweise besteht in der Simulation alternativer Datenkonstellationen auf der Basis eines Linearen-Optimierungs-Modells, das der Tradition des konsumtheoretischen Ansatzes von Lancaster folgt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, daß Despezialisierung nicht notwendigerweise als Beweis für das Versagen des produktionstheoretischen Ansatzes angesehen werden muß.

The working hours issue in Sweden

The Swedish welfare state model is based on a high volume of male labour and steadily increasing labour market participation by women. General working time reductions to below the 40-hour norm did not previously enter into the trade unions' framework of goals, preference being given to individual working time reductions, for example in the form of parental leave. As a result of the employment crisis in the early 90s the prevalent conception of the welfare state based on economic growth was shattered, so that the idea of general working time reduction began to enjoy increased popularity in large sectors of the population, particularly among women.

`Pioneers Behind Our Own Front Doors': Towards Greater Balance in the Organisation of Work in Partnerships

The seemingly intransigent nature of gender inequalities in the organisation of work has led to a somewhat gloomy portrayal of what is possible. Women's increased labour market participation has led to neither parity with men in terms of earnings and status nor a corresponding re-negotiation of labour in the home. Theorising on gender and work, however, tends to assume that workers, parents and households are heterosexual. This paper extends debate by considering the role of sexual identity for shaping the experience of work. It focuses on divisions of labour between lesbian women who are parenting together, and compares their arrangements with parents more generally. It seeks to illuminate what is achievable when actors are informed by broadly similar gender ideologies and negotiate from a position of gender parity in terms of power.