Labor Market Entry Research Articles

Good personality traits in bad times: Does conscientiousness mitigate the adverse effects of graduating in a recession?

This paper studies whether and how conscientiousness, a personality trait, helps individuals mitigate the adverse effects of graduating during a recession on early career outcomes. By analyzing college-educated individuals who graduated in the 1980s, we find that conscientiousness reduces the income losses of workers who graduated during a recession. This effect results mainly from workers’ adjustments in the labor supply. When graduating during a recession, college graduates high in conscientiousness are more likely to find full-time jobs and work more hours per week than their counterparts low in conscientiousness. Regarding the other four Big Five personality traits, while agreeableness has a modest effect on mitigating the effects of adverse labor market entry conditions on hourly wages, extraversion, openness to experience, and emotional stability do not appear to buffer against such early career losses. Additionally, cognitive ability does not offset the challenges posed by graduating during a recession.

Dynamics in the heritability of leadership role occupancy: Evidence from a three-wave twin sample

Studies show that genetics matter in who becomes a leader. However, we know little about the dynamic properties of the heritability of leadership emergence or how genetics might interact with environmental conditions to shape leadership emergence. We track leadership role occupancy at three time points among a cohort of 1,079 Danish twin pairs over ten years. Our results suggest that genetics matter less when the cohort is young and increase over time as the cohort grows older. We argue that labor market entry costs coupled with free access to education constrain the effect of genetics in the cohort during early adulthood, suggesting differing effects of the environment on genetic expression as the cohort ages. Sorting based on individual predisposition towards leadership likely strengthens as the cohort grows older and gains labor market experience. This result implies that we should not view the effect of genes on leadership role occupancy as static and that environmental experiences could disproportionately affect critical early leadership advancement. Our study reinforces calls to consider dynamic properties such as gene x environment interactions to advance our broader understanding of leadership’s biology.

Migrant Women in the UK’s Digital Economy: The Elimination of Labour Market Barriers in the Digital Labour Market

This research paper delves into the complexities migrant women face within the UK labour market, with a specific focus on the digital economy’s role as both a barrier and a conduit for employment opportunities. Migrant women in the UK encounter dual barriers to labour market entry: systemic challenges rooted in migration and gender biases, and the digital divide that exacerbates access and inclusion issues within the burgeoning digital economy. Through an exploratory descriptive analysis, this study explores how digitalism—defined as the integration of digital technologies into economic and societal practices—circumvents traditional labour market entry barriers such as languages barriers. By setting out the grounds for a potential hypothesis and further research in the era of AI, this paper underlines how through the implementation of AI tools, traditional barriers such as language barriers are eliminated in the digital labour market.

Public service motivation, public sector preference and employment of Kenyan medical doctor interns: a cross-sectional and prospective study

BackgroundKenya grapples with a paradox; severe public sector workforce shortages co-exist with rising unemployment among healthcare professionals. Medical schools have increased trainee outputs, but only 45% of newly qualified/registered doctors were absorbed by the public sector during 2015–2018. In such a context, we explore what influences doctors’ career choices at labour market entry, specifically understanding the role of public service motivation (PSM).MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional and prospective study of interns and recently graduated doctors to examine PSM, their intention to work in the public sector and their final employment sector and status. We surveyed them on their PSM and job intentions and conducted a prospective follow-up survey of the interns, around one year later, to understand their employment status.FindingsWe recruited 356 baseline participants and followed up 76 out of 129 eligible interns. The overall PSM score was high among all participants (rated 4.50/5.00) irrespective of sector preferences. 48% (171/356) of the participants preferred to work in the public sector immediately after internship, alongside 16% (57/356) preferring direct entry into specialist training—commonly in the public sector. Only 13% (46/356) and 7% (25/365) preferred to work in the private or faith-based sector. Despite the high proportion of interns preferring public sector jobs, only 17% (13/76) were employed in the public sector at follow-up and 13% (10/76) were unemployed, due to lack of job availability.ConclusionHigh PSM scores irrespective of sector preferences suggest that doctors are generally committed to serving the ‘public good’. Many intended to work in the public sector but were unable to due to lack of job opportunities. Policymakers have an opportunity to tackle workforce gaps in the public sector as young doctors continue to express a preference for such work. To do this they should prioritise creating adequate and sustainable job opportunities.

Discrimination or a Competitive Climate? Why Women Cannot Translate Their Better High School Grades into University Grades

While girls have better grades than boys in high school, this does not translate into better performance of young women, as compared to young men, in university. Due to the high signalling value of university grades for subsequent income and employment outcomes, this has important consequences for gender inequalities at labour market entry. However, previous studies have not yet examined the potential barriers that might limit women’s ability to maintain their previous academic achievement at the university level. Drawing on the nation-wide Student Survey, this study addresses this shortcoming by investigating perceived discrimination against women and perceived competition among students as two potential correlates. Our findings first confirm that while girls have better grades in high school than boys, this has reversed at the university level. Further, high school grades are less strongly correlated with university grades for girls compared to boys. Our results highlight that young women perceive there to be more discrimination against women as well as higher levels of competition within their field of study, than do their male peers. The study further demonstrates that an increased level of perceived discrimination is strongly associated with lower university performance for young women, thereby plausibly hindering their ability to reach their full academic potential.

Structural labour market change, cognitive work, and entry to parenthood in Germany

Technological change and globalization have caused unprecedented transformations of labour markets, resulting in a growing division between workers who perform cognitive vs non-cognitive tasks. To date, only few studies have addressed the fertility effects of these long-term structural changes. This study fills that gap. We measure the cognitive task content of occupations using data from the Employment Survey of the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, which we link to individual histories from the German Socio-Economic Panel 1984–2018. We find that women and men with non-cognitive jobs are increasingly less likely to enter parenthood; this is reflected in lower first-birth intensities but also in higher probabilities of childlessness compared with workers in highly cognitive jobs. These findings imply that structural shifts in the labour market are exacerbating disparities between low-skilled and highly skilled individuals, not only within the labour market but also in the realm of family formation.

Scars of the job market “ice-age”

Abstract Existing studies found that entering the labor market during a recession has persistent negative effects—the scarring effects—on employment and earnings for Japanese men. The cohorts who entered the labor market during the prolonged recession between 1993 and 2004 are called “the ice-age cohorts,” and the persistent gap between them and older cohorts who entered the labor market during the bubble economy is often interpreted as the scarring effect of business cycle conditions at entry. However, the existing studies in Japan use data covering cohorts who enter the labor market in the 1990s or earlier. Motivated by the lack of empirical evidence with updated data, this article revisits the scarring effects of a recession at labor market entry on employment and earnings using data covering graduation cohorts 1984–2013. Younger cohorts who enter the labor market during the recovery do not earn more or enjoy more stable employment than the cohorts who enter the bottom of the ice-age, and that the effects of unemployment rate at entry on employment and earnings are no longer statistically significant for cohorts who enter the labor market after the job market ice-age. I also discuss potential factors that may have weakened scarring effects.

The dynamics of the early career gender wage gap among university graduates: The case of Russia

AbstractThis study provides new evidence of the gender wage gap among recent university graduates at different stages of their early career. Using a unique administrative dataset from Russia, we estimate the gender wage gap at means and across wage distribution for a cohort of 2018 university graduates during the first 4 years after graduation. We explore the contribution of educational and job factors to the explanation of the gap. Although a substantial gap of 14% is already present at labour market entry, it is two times smaller compared to the gap for the overall working population. Eighty five percent of the entry wage gap can be explained with differences in fields of study, work experience, and job characteristics. More than 4 years after graduation, the gender wage gap experiences a dramatic increase, reaching 26%. Only 28% of the resulting gap can be explained by the observed characteristics, including industrial and occupational segregation. The size of the gap varies drastically in different parts of the wage distribution, suggesting the existence of a strong glass ceiling effect from the very beginning of graduate careers. The rapidly expanding early career gender wage gap with a growing unexplained component suggests that education policies may have limited ability to promote gender equality in the labour market.

Informality and aggregate productivity: The case of Mexico

This paper develops and estimates a quantitative model to analyze the aggregate productivity consequences of informality in Mexico. While informality is typically viewed as prevailing solely among small firms, we use rich census data to document a high and rising share of large informal firms between 1998 and 2013. The model is quantified using the observed size and productivity distributions of both informal and formal firms. We use the model to assess the role of changes in labor market regulations, entry costs and enforcement in contributing to the rise in informality and decline in TFP in Mexico from 1998 to 2013. We find that the factors most important for the decline in aggregate productivity were not important drivers of the increase in informality, and conversely, the factors most important for the increase in informality had little impact on aggregate productivity. Regulatory changes during the 2000s contributed to over a third of the observed rise in the informal employment share, but with small aggregate productivity consequences. In contrast, rising entry costs account for a third of the decline in TFP from 1998 to 2013, but had little impact on informality.

Grades and Employer Learning

This study examines the labor-market returns of skill signals. We identify the labor-market effect of grade point averages (GPA) by leveraging a nationwide change in the scaling of grades in Danish universities. Results show that a reform-induced increase in GPA that is unrelated to ability causes higher earnings immediately after graduation, but the effect fades in subsequent years. The effect at labor-market entry is largest for individuals with fewer alternative signals and the earnings adjustment occurs both within and across firms. Although employers initially screen candidates based on skill signals, our findings suggest that they rapidly learn about worker productivity.

Short-time work, labor hoarding, and curtailed hiring: establishment-level evidence from Japan

This study analyzes the mechanisms by which short-time work (STW) schemes affect firm’s employment adjustments, using establishment-level data during the Great Recession from Japan. The findings show that STW leads to a decrease in both hiring and separations, with no significant positive effect on net employment. The observed curtailed hiring can be explained within the context of how STW promotes labor hoarding. STW encourages firms to maintain redundant employment by subsidizing the costs of labor hoarding. The excess labor surplus in firms adopting STW diminishes the incentive to recruit new workers in anticipation of the recovery period. Furthermore, as firms generally lack the motivation to hoard marginal workers, STW may exacerbate job security disparities between regular and marginal workers. These findings have important implications for policy evaluation, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding of the potential adverse consequences of STW on labor market entrants and marginal workers.

New Evidence on Welfare’s Disincentive for the Youth Using Administrative Panel Data

Abstract We estimate the impact of social assistance on youth employment in Denmark, 2000 to 2006. For childless unmarried individuals, maximum welfare payments increased by 55% at age 25. Using administrative panel data, we find a significant disincentive effect among the low-skilled only, for whom employment fell by 2% to 3% and benefit take-up increased by 10% to 14%. Two-thirds of the effect is attributable to transitions from work to welfare and one-third to reduced labor market entry. Heterogeneous estimates along the earnings distribution show that employment responses are concentrated at very low earnings. We find no evidence of an age discontinuity in criminal activities.

Examining the Role of Women’s Labor Participation in CO2 Emissions in Saudi Arabia

Women can play an active role in determining environmental quality, and Saudi women’s share in the labor market is increasing considerably. Women's participation is still low in the labor market, and their participation might affect the aggregated environmental situation. Therefore, we explore the effect of Women's Labor Participation (WLP) on CO2 emissions in Saudi Arabia from 1990 to 2022 by employing a cointegration technique. The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) is tested and substantiated in the long run, but it is not verified in the short run. WLP raises CO2 emissions. Thus, women's labor market entry has environmental consequences. Moreover, trade openness also contributes to CO2 emissions over a long period of time. Nevertheless, its short-term impact is environmentally pleasant. The study recommends checking environmental problems out of WLP by developing gender-responsive environmental policies. So, gender equality and sustainable growth would be targeted simultaneously.

Gender and Social Contacts: Labour Market Entry Among Refugee and Family Reunion Migrants in Sweden

Increasing rates of refugee and family reunion immigration have led to rising concern about integration in Europe. Previous studies point to the importance of social contacts for migrants’ labour market integration but suggest that they play different roles for men and women. Yet, less attention has been paid to the potential factors shaping gender differences. Using the Swedish Level of Living Survey of foreign-born and their children, this study (1) establishes the gender-specific role of contacts at entry into employment among refugee and family reunion migrants, and (2) analyses how educational attainment and region of origin shape gender differences. Results reveal that social contacts promote entry into employment among migrant men. In contrast, contacts are not related to a shorter time to first job among migrant women. Findings further point towards gender differences in the role of social contacts by educational attainment and region of origin. In particular, migrant men appear to benefit from their contacts largely because social contacts assist low-educated men in securing work. Among women, the role of social contacts does not differ across educational attainment. Instead, educational attainment is directly associated with time to first job, suggesting that women rely more heavily on their formal education. The returns to social contacts are heterogeneous across regions of origin, and especially so among women.

Navigating bias? An assessment of access to, use of, and returns to social capital in the school-to-work transition of descendants of immigrants

Research in several advanced economies has found that the descendants of immigrants tend to experience persistent difficulties in entering the labour market. This article tests whether social capital contributes to the disadvantage of descendants of immigrants in the school-to-work transition when compared to their native-background peers in Sweden. The study uses the CILS4EU survey, which provides information on friendship ties measured at age 15 and labour market outcomes at age 19. This allows for an analysis of networks formed before labour market entrance, an extensive control setup, and a comparison of measures of outgoing, incoming, and reciprocated friendship ties. The results show that the descendants of immigrants have access to less social capital measured as employed friends, but that they are as likely as natives to use their contacts to obtain a job. The returns to social capital are similar in terms of unemployment risk, but descendants of immigrants have a lower payoff when it comes to earnings. The study concludes that social capital contributes to, but is not the main driver of their labour market disadvantage in the school-to-work transition.

Do employability programmes in higher education improve skills and labour market outcomes? A systematic review of academic literature

ABSTRACT We conduct a systematic literature review of the academic literature on activities organised by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with the aim of improving skills associated with employability and facilitating labour market outcomes. The search resulted in 87 papers followed by an iterative evaluation of their relevance. Papers in the corpus were analysed using an evaluation research framework and classified in terms of the activities, outputs, and outcomes. The reviewed literature is centred on one of three stakeholders: HEIs, students or employers. It suggests all stakeholders value employability activities for similar reasons. Generally, they are seen as a vital part of HEI education programmes, facilitating the development of diverse skills that are desirable in the labour market as well as de-risking labour market entry for students and appointments for employers by alleviating information asymmetries. The evidence base is dominated by small-scale case studies and evaluations that are not sufficiently robust to infer about causal impacts of employability activities on students’ development and labour market outcomes. Moreover, the corpus is skewed towards studies of Work-Related Learning. We set out avenues for future research and argue for a comprehensive evidence base encompassing diverse forms of employability activities, such as larger scale ‘embedded employability’ activities; a more contextual understanding of employability as an interplay between individual and a particular labour market and education system; and a more robust evidence base tracking students from education into the labour market, allowing for selection effects and identifying heterogeneity of impacts across different activities and demographics.

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPACT OF EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS ON EMPLOYEE JOB PERFORMANCE AMONG GHANAIAN UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

According to CEDEFOP (2014) an educational qualification type is a group of titles/diplomas and/or certificates within a country, sharing similar characteristics in terms of level, duration of related education pathway, and level of labour market entry. Within a qualification type, there are many different qualifications according to content. Qualification is an indication of trust in someone’s personal capabilities (Cedefop, 2012). It is usually a degree, diploma or certificate awarded by a competent authority in recognition that particular programme or qualification outcomes have been achieved following the successful completion of a recognized higher education programme of study (QAA, 2014). A qualification can be a legal entitlement to practice a trade (OECD, 2007). Work or job performance has been used to define employees’ ability to complete assigned duties according to organizational set rules and procedures occasioned by the normal constraints of reasonable utilization of available resources (Ogunley & Osekita, 2016). Fundamentally, performance has been viewed as an evaluation of the results of a person’s behaviour, and it involves determining the behavioural actions on how well or poorly a person has accomplished a task or done a job. It had been concluded as Lussier (2010) believes that to attain high levels of performance by both employees and managers, it is important that organizations to warrant that their employees have the requisite qualifications, the abilities, and the resources to meet organizations objectives. The results of the study proved that there is a strong relationship between educational qualification and job performance. It has been found by 80% of the study’s respondents that by virtue of their educational qualification, they are able to come up with new ideas to perform their jobs very well. Subsequently, when employees’ performance is not at the standard level or above the level set, then organizational leaders have the responsibility to determine which performance factors need to be improved, and what strategies are adopted to improve them. Consequently, administrative staff and employees in general should think of the current gap and challenge within their career path and decide the best program that will help to meet such needs. Finally, to improve the nexus of academic qualifications and job performance, this study recommended that special incentives and grants be made available, as well as be the drivers behind their staff pursuing higher educational qualification.
 Keywords: Educational Qualification, Employee Job Performance, Administrative Staff.

Non-standard employment and underemployment at labor market entry and their impact on later wage trajectories

Using data from the Australian Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey (2001–2020), we examine how combined patterns of non-standard employment and underemployment in the early career shape later wage trajectories, paying careful attention to gender differences on a representative sample of Australian young men ( N = 470) and women ( N = 497). By combining multichannel sequence analysis and random effects panel models, we make three central findings. First, we identify seven distinct early employment trajectories, with the “standard” career, characterized by stable, full-time permanent jobs in the first 5 years post-education, being the most prevalent. Second, we find that combined patterns of non-standard employment and underemployment during early careers are associated with significant wage penalties. However, these wage penalties diminish within 10 years. Third, enduring and widening wage disparities are found only among youth primarily unemployed or inactive early in their careers. These penalties are particularly pronounced among men, underscoring the influence of the “ideal” worker norm. Overall, integrating underemployed jobseekers into the workforce and addressing gender-based biases should be a priority for policymakers to ensure equal opportunities and fair treatment for all workers in the labor market.

Education systems as life course policies? The example of subnational educational regimes and young adults’ family transitions

Abstract This study investigates the role of subnational educational opportunities for three typical transitions in young adulthood: 1) leaving the parental home, 2) starting to cohabit and 3) becoming a parent. Educational opportunities shape young adults’ life courses as they facilitate the accumulation of human capital, labour market entry and financial independence. Education systems and opportunities are part of transition regimes shaped by the specific cultural, economic and policy characteristics of a (subnational) context, and are thus likely to affect moving out and family formation. Drawing on the example of Switzerland with its large cantonal variation in educational opportunities, we use longitudinal data from the TREE panel study to follow a cohort of young adults born in the mid-1980s from ages 16 to 29. Event history models show that larger shares of young people in vocational education at a cantonal level are associated with earlier moving out and parenthood, but later partnership formation. The influence of vocational opportunities is moderated by the presence of a university in the canton.

A study of new labor market entrants' job satisfaction trajectories during a series of consecutive job changes.

Previous research on the psychological effect of job change has revealed a honeymoon-hangover pattern during the turnover process. However, there is a dearth of evidence on how individuals react and adapt to multiple job changes over their working lives. This study distinguishes adaptation to a single job change in the short term from adaptation to the process of job change in the long term. Drawing on two large-scale, long-running panel data sets from Britain and Australia, it examined how job satisfaction trajectory evolved as individuals made a series of consecutive job changes since they first entered the labor market. Our fixed effect analyses show that in both countries, individuals experienced a stronger honeymoon effect with each successive job change, before gradually reverting to their baseline job satisfaction. In short, the amplitude of the honeymoon-hangover effect increased across multiple job changes. By distinguishing "adaptation to change" from "change in adaptation," this study generates original insights into the role of job mobility in facilitating career development and extends set point theory from understanding the impact of single life events to recurring life events. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).