Labour Market Performance Research Articles

Adaptability of the workforce in Europe – changing skills in the digital era

Digital technologies make significant impact on labor market, primarily by complementing or by substituting workers. This has triggered a change in the set of skills that are required from workers, by putting stronger focus on problemsolving skills, creativity, socioemotional skills, functional literacy and technical skills related to the use of digital technologies. The effects of digitalization on the labor market and economic performances of a particular country in the future depend on the workforce adaptability, industrial and occupational structure, the skills mix, organization of work and current state of digitalization. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the degree of workforce skills adaptability in 30 European countries, using the OECD data on achievement in reading, math and science, as well as the data on digital competencies, inclusion in lifelong learning and subjective perception on ability to find a new job. Our results suggest positive relationship between adaptability and PISA results. Using the principal component analysis, cluster analysis and LCCA (latent class cluster analysis), we find that European countries can be grouped into three clusters, in terms of adaptability: high performing (North and Western Europe), medium performing (Central Europe and Baltics) and low performing (South and South-eastern Europe). For some countries, low levels of adaptability of the workforce can pose an important obstacle for future growth and development.

Study of Micro-Evidences for Agricultural Labour Market Functioning in Agriculturally Developed Chomu Tehsil of Jaipur

The present study intended to investigate the performance of agricultural labour market in Jaipur district of Rajasthan. A cluster of three villages (Jaitpura, Kanpura and Khushalpura) from Chomu tehsil of Jaipur district was randomly selected for the study. The sixty respondents were selected on a random basis from the particular cluster of villages. The pre-tested schedules were used for collection of primary data from the selected agricultural labour households during 2010-11. The collected data were processed and analyzed by using various statistical and mathematical tools. The frequency of labour credit interlocking was much more prominent as compared to labour-land interlocking except in one village (Khushalpura), more than half of the labour had borrowed money from their employers. There was no definite rate of interest on the loaned money from the employers. However, the employers recovered very high unspoken rate of interest in terms of a number of little owing jobs. The labour-land interlocking was, however, yet another form of wage labour since all the inputs were being provided by the landowners. It was varied in between 14-18 percent. However, the average wage/day earned in this system was higher (Rs. 175-190) than the average wage rate in the casual labour system. Family size, family income, socioeconomic status of the family and age had a significant effect on the probability of an agricultural labour household entering into interlocked arrangements.

Кључне димензије квалитета запослености у Србији

Предмет рада је критичко сагледавање стања и динамике на тржи-шту рада у Србији, са посебним освртом на квалитет запослености уодносу на земље чланице ЕУ. У раду се, најпре, анализирају нова ин-ституционална решења у овој области, која за циљ имају већу флек-сибилност на тржишту рада, при чему се посебна пажња придаје EPLиндексу (индексу законодавне заштите запослења). Потом се, студи-озно и детаљно, сагледава квалитет запослености у Србији. Налазидо којих се у истраживању дошло указују на то да су, и поред побољ-шања на тржишту рада у Србији током претходних неколико година,основни индикатори у току 2016. године и даље били знатно нижинего у ЕУ-28. Осим тога, анализом бројних релевантних показатељадошло се до закључка да постоје изражени проблеми повезани саквалитетом запослености у Србији – релативно високо учешће ра-њиве запослености, висока стопа неформалне запослености и нижеучешће запослених радника који имају уговоре на неодређено време.Резултати спроведеног истраживања указују и на то да је субјективниосећај сигурности радног места у Србији мањи него у ЕУ-28, што јепотврђено и кроз објективне податке o преласцима из једног статусана тржишту рада у други, који доноси нижи ниво сигурности запо-слења – у Србији је удео оваквих прелазака виши него у ЕУ-28.

The Welsh economy and the labour market

This paper takes a brief review of the labour market performance of Wales over the last 20 to 30 years, and some of the challenges it has faced and will face going forward. These include, public sector pay and employment, the quality of education, trends to more flexible labour markets, and Brexit.

Stigma, problem drug use, and welfare state encounters: changing contours of stigmatization in the era of social investment

Aim: This study examined the ways in which citizens who have self-identified as having problem drug use experienced welfare state encounters in Denmark and considered the findings in the context of the social investment paradigm.Methods: We conducted qualitative interviews with 106 Danish citizens who identified as having a problem drug use. The interviews were transcribed and coded in Nvivo to classify different types of welfare state encounters experiences.Results: Previous research has documented extensive prevalence of drug-related stigmatization in welfare state encounters; however, approximately two-thirds of the citizens in this study did not recount this kind of stigmatization as predominating. Three prevailing narratives were conveyed by these participants: (1) narratives describing encounters where welfare state authorities approached the participant as ‘a whole person,’ (2) narratives depicting encounters where the participants were submissive, and (3) narratives about welfare state authorities who discredited the significance of the participants' drug problems and imposed expectations considered unrealistic by the participants, e.g. expectations related to labor market performance. In the third type of encounter, participants experienced incongruence between their actual and virtual identities; not because problem drug use was granted master status but because their self-identified severe drug problems were downplayed by the welfare state authorities.Conclusion: Encountering welfare state authorities who downplayed the importance of drug problems gave rise to a form of stigmatization which we conceptualize as ‘neo-stigmatization’ to emphasize the contrast to drug related stigmatization where the importance of drug use is elevated to the point of master status. Neo-stigmatization emerges as politically productive in the context of the social investment paradigm that increasingly ties social worth to labor market value. Alleviating neo-stigmatization requires a political-economic framework that recognizes the value of citizens as not just workers but also caregivers and care receivers.

Migrants’ Integration on the European Labor Market: A Spatial Bootstrap, SEM and Network Approach

This study is set out to identify feasible ways for immigrants’ integration into the major ten host countries within the European Union (EU-10) and increased labor market performance. Eurostat, OECD, and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) official data was mainly used to capture essential international migration indicators (for both dimensions—economic and humanitarian), along with education, socio-economic development and labor market credentials, as key variables for immigrants’ integration into EU-10, compiled for 2000–2017. In this respect, spatial analyses, bootstrap estimations, structural equations (SEM), and Gaussian graphical models (GGM) are applied, to better grasp migrants’ labor market outcomes. Significant positive consequences reflected through a reduction in the unemployment rate of the foreign population are generated by active labor market policies, jointly with an enhancement in the attainment for secondary education, and welfare advances. The opposite, a rise in income inequalities has negative effects, while additional support for R&D activities deployed within the business sector is required to entail migrants’ labor market performance. The passive policies need to be redesigned and tailored to significantly downsize the foreign unemployment, since these are currently acting like a disincentive for an active participation of migrants on the European labor market, thus confining their integration.

Modeling the Employment Rate in Russia: a Spatial-Econometric Approach

The purpose of this study is to identify factors that affect the level of employment in Russian regions. However, Russia is not a homogeneous country, and this effect may not be the same for all regions. That is why we split the regions of Russia into three groups, depending on the state of the labor market in this and neighboring regions. The HH (high-high) group comprises regions with a favorable situation in their labor markets, and which are also surrounded mostly by prosperous regions. Two groups of regions with a less favorable situation are located respectively in the south of Russia (LL1, low-low group 1) and southern Siberia and Zabaikalye (LL2, low-low group 2). We considered the twelve-year period from 2005 to 2016. As explanatory variables, we used variables for the attractiveness of the region, demographic characteristics of the region, and the degree of diversity of employees by economic activities. We tested hypotheses about differences in 1) the spatial effects and 2) the impact of the various explanatory variables for these groups of variables. To test our main hypotheses, we used spatial regression dynamic models estimated with the help of the generalized method of moments. Both main hypotheses received empirical confirmation. Spatial effects were different. The regions of the LL2 group are not affected by the situation in other local markets; regions of LL1 and HH groups are affected by the rest of Russia’s regions, and the extent of this influence decreases with the increase in geographical distance between regions. Moreover, the regions of the LL1 group compete with neighboring regions: if the situation in one of them improves, then it draws on the resources of the others. Regarding the impact of the explanatory variables, the “group effect†was revealed for the variables: share of urban population, net migration rate, shares of people below and above working age, share of people with higher education. Our results can favor the better design of national and regional policies to improve labor market performance in Russia based on the heterogeneity of the Russian regions.

Integration of Refugees on the Danish Labor Market

The unprecedented inflow of refugees in the Nordic countries since 2014 has accentuated debates about the effectiveness of the Nordic models and their labor market integration programs. The ‘refugee crisis’ opened a window of opportunity in which some Nordic countries reformed their policy framework to promote faster and more effective labor market integration of refugees. Denmark is celebrated for its well-functioning flexicurity labor market, but has not been particularly successful in integrating nonwestern migrants and refugees in the labor market. We examine barriers on the supply-side, the demand-side, and in the matching process of the labor market to better understand the labor market performance of refugees. Subsequently, we analyze the new Danish labor market integration programs and discuss preliminary implementation results. Although it is too early to make any final judgments of the outcomes, there are indications of positive changes in implementation and results, while important integration issues remain unresolved.

Job mobility among Korean youth: evidence from sequential analysis

ABSTRACTThis study explores the patterns and characteristics of job mobility among Korean youth through sequential analysis. It verifies initial career formation patterns to identify important implications in developing policies for effective labor market performance, using 15 years of job history data from the Korean Labor & Income Panel of the Korea Labor Institute. It finds that, first, simple laborers and service workers had the highest job mobility. Namely, young individuals begin their careers in jobs with low initial entry barriers and seek to change jobs quickly. Second, a significance test on job mobility showed that the mutual movement rate between jobs in professional, semi-professional, clerical and technical, machine operations-related, and simple labor fields was extremely low, indicating the presence of job mobility barriers. Third, females choose stable and familiar jobs compared to men, tending to adjust to one job type instead of considering new ones.

Long-Term Impact of Trade Liberalization on Human Capital Formation

While a growing line of research has assessed the effect of trade liberalization on human capital formation, most of these existing studies focus on short term effect on individual's schooling attendance, and much less is known about it's long run effect, as well as the impact on other aspects of human capital formation, such as labor market and noncognitive outcomes. This paper studies the impact of trade liberalization on individuals' long-term human capital accumulation, including school attendance, cog- nitive abilities, labor market performance, and noncognitive outcomes. We use data for China from 1990 to 2010, a period during which the country became increasingly involved in global trade. By constructing prefecture-year-level tariff barriers, our iden- ti cation strategy exploits variations in different cohorts' exposure to a trade shock at age 16 for individuals within the same prefecture. Empirical results suggest that trade liberalization leads to decreased completed years of schooling, cognitive abilities, wage, and noncognitive outcomes. We provide suggestive evidence that this observed pattern is explained by the expansion of job opportunities in relatively low-skilled and labor-intensive sectors.

WITHDRAWN: Explaining the labour market performance of Muslim women in Britain

WITHDRAWN: Explaining the labour market performance of Muslim women in Britain

Exploring the Effects of Skills Test on the Labor Market Outcomes of Migrant Workers in Korea

Skills test has been administered since 2012 as a part of the employment permit system, which governs the selection process of foreign workers in Korea. Despite the significance of having a well-functioning guest worker program in eliciting desirable foreign migrant workers, there have been scant attempts to objectively measure the effectiveness of the skills test in terms of enhancing the quality of the short-term guest workers in Korea. In this paper, we empirically evaluate the impacts of the implementation of the skills test on the labor market performance of foreign-born workers in Korea. In order to address the econometric issues arising from non-random assignments related to the decision to take the test, we apply the propensity score matching method to administrative data collected by Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS). The results suggest that foreign workers participating in skills test tend to experience a longer duration of employment, being more likely to fulfill a contract period, with small negative effects on wages.

Of carrots and sticks: the effect of workfare announcements on the job search behaviour and reservation wage of welfare recipients

The German workfare scheme ‘One-Euro-Jobs’, which provides additional jobs of public interest for welfare recipients, has a number of different goals. On the one hand, One-Euro-Jobs are intended to increase the participants’ employment prospects in the medium term. On the other hand, they can be used to test welfare recipients’ willingness to work. We use survey data from the Panel Study ‘Labour Market and Social Security’ and propensity score matching methods to study the intention-to-treat effect of receiving a One-Euro-Job announcement on job search behaviour, reservation wage and labour market performance of welfare recipients. We find that receiving a One-Euro-Job announcement increases job search activities significantly and decreases the reservation wage for women and individuals who have been employed within the last 4 years, but does not affect the short-term employment probability.

Rozwój społeczny powiatów województwa mazowieckiego – kwantyfikacja i ocena

Głównym celem badań zaprezentowanych w artykule była ocena spójności powiatów województwa mazowieckiego pod względem rozwoju społecznego – jednego z trzech podstawowych wymiarów zrównoważonego rozwoju. Poziom rozwoju społecznego powiatów (jednostek terytorialnych NUTS 4) zmierzono przy wykorzystaniu autorskiego wskaźnika syntetycznego obejmującego 12 zmiennych diagnostycznych, z których w wyniku analizy czynnikowej wyodrębniono cztery obszary (czynniki): demografia, edukacja, ochrona zdrowia oraz sytuacja na lokalnym rynku pracy. Przedstawiono zróżnicowanie poziomu rozwoju w czasie i między powiatami. Z przeprowadzonych badań wynika, że w latach 2006–2015 najbardziej rozwinięte pod względem społecznym były miasta na prawach powiatów (Siedlce, Ostrołęka, Płock, Warszawa i Radom), a najmniej powiaty ziemskie z południowej i wschodniej (peryferyjnej) części województwa mazowieckiego (siedlecki, lipski i przysuski). Średni poziom rozwoju powiatów Mazowsza, mierzony wskaźnikiem syntetycznym, wykazał tendencję wzrostową, a dysproporcje między najbardziej i najmniej rozwiniętymi powiatami w tym czasie uległy zmniejszeniu.

Does promoting homeownership always damage labour market performances?

In this paper we analyse the link between homeownership and various aggregate and individual labour market outcomes. Our aim is to investigate the likely consequences of public policies that promote homeownership. To this end, we develop a circular firm-worker matching model with Nash-bargained wage setting and free market entry. Homeowners are assumed to be less mobile than tenants and to bear higher mobility costs. Our numerical exercises show that tenants usually have lower unemployment rates and lower wage rates than homeowners. Importantly, workers’ performances do not necessarily improve following an increase in the proportion of homeowners. The latter crucially depends on the relative utility enjoyed by homeowners and tenants when unemployed. In the aggregate, nevertheless, we find that the unemployment rate generally increases following an increase in the proportion of homeowners. Yet, the link between the two can be reversed if the homeowners’ utility is lower than that of tenants when unemployed. Our model thus identifies a number of conditions under which Oswald’s conjecture is likely to hold or not. Thus, our results do not necessarily support the view that policies fostering homeownership are adequate public policies given their potentially negative effect on the labour market.

Wage effects of labour market entry via temporary work agency employment

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether labour market entry via temporary work has any (persistent) effects on labour market outcomes.Design/methodology/approachUsing unique data on several cohorts of graduates from the German apprenticeship system, the authors interpret labour market entry via temporary work agency (TWA) work as a treatment and apply propensity score matching and the control function approach to investigate corresponding effects.FindingsThe results indicate a pronounced wage gap but no significant wage disadvantage in the medium term for graduates who switch to regular employment. Nevertheless, approximately 30 per cent of the graduates do not manage to leave the temporary help sector and, as a result, suffer persistent wage penalties.Originality/valueThe numerous studies that investigate the consequences of TWA work on individual labour market performance have not considered the specific situation of young workers after graduation. The rapidly increasing percentage of TWA jobs and the above average share of young workers among temporary workers call for corresponding evidence.

장애인의 직업훈련 참가 희망과 실제, 그리고 노동시장 성과

본 연구는 장애인의 직업훈련 참가희망과 실제 참가 결정요인이 어떻게 다른지, 그리고 참가할 경우 취업과 임금효과는 어떠한지를 분석하고 있다. 장애인고용패널 3∼8차 자료를 가지고 합동 OLS분석과 패널 확률효과 분석을 한 결과는 다음과 같다. 비수도권 장애인일수록, 대인관계/조직적응 능력이 뛰어 날수록, 자격증을 가지고 있을수록, 고용서비스를 받은 경험이 있을수록 직업훈련참가를 더 희망하고 있 다. 하지만 이들 특성은 실제 참가에서는 통계적으로 유의하지 않으며, 여성장애인, 배우자가 없는 장애 인이 직업훈련에 더 참가하고 있는 것으로 나타나 희망과 실제 참여 간 괴리가 있다. 미취업자의 경우, 신체내부 장애인에 비하여 신체외부장애인, 감각장애인이 직업훈련에 참여하기를 더 희망하고 실제 훈련 에도 더 참가하고 있으며, 취업자의 경우 중증장애인이 경증장애인보다 직업훈련에 더 참가하고 있는 것 은 이들 대상 공공프로그램이 더 많기 때문으로 보인다. 취업자와 미취업자 모두에서 일상생활도움이 필 요할수록, 저학력자일수록 직업훈련에 덜 참가하고 있으며, 자격증을 가지고 있는 장애인일수록, 고용서 비스를 받은 경험이 있을수록 직업훈련에 더 참가하고 있는 것은 통상적인 가설과 부합한다. 다만, 직업 훈련 참가하기를 더 바라는 중소기업 취업 장애인이 실제로는 그렇지 않은 것으로 나타나 중소기업 장 애인의 직업훈련 참가 장애요인을 찾아 대안을 모색할 필요가 있다. 또한 직업훈련 참가는 취업이나 임 금에 통계적으로 유의한 영향을 미치지 못하고 있다. 장애인의 직업훈련 참가희망은 장애인의 현재 상황 에서 향후 직업훈련 참가, 구직노력 증가와 취업 등으로 연결될 수 있는 중요한 신호인 만큼, 장애인의 직업훈련 참가를 가로막는 개인적, 사회적, 제도적 장벽을 찾아 이를 해소하는 정책적 노력이 필요하다. 또한 직업훈련 참가의 취업과 임금효과가 없는 것으로 나타난 점에 대해서도 심층적인 후속 연구와 대 응책 마련이 필요하다.

Prenatal exposure to air pollution and intergenerational economic mobility: Evidence from U.S. county birth cohorts

New estimates reveal intergenerational economic mobility varies substantially across U.S. counties. The potential role of local environmental health exposures in structuring mobility outcomes has been thus far unexamined, despite mounting evidence that early life exposure to environmental pollutants has lasting impacts for individual human capital development and labor market performance. This study aims to fill this gap by estimating the impact of exposure to air pollution in the birth year on the average intergenerational mobility outcomes of children from low-income families as measured in adulthood. We do so by linking measures of intergenerational economic mobility for U.S. county-cohorts born between 1980 and 1986 to the county average concentration of total suspended particulates (TSP) in the birth year. We then estimate multivariate linear regression models that adjust for birth-cohort fixed effects, county-fixed effects and time-varying county-level covariates to address potential confounding. We find higher levels of TSP in birth year is associated with less upward economic mobility for children from low-income families: a one standard deviation increase in TSP levels is associated with a 0.14 point reduction in average income percentile ranking as measured in adulthood. Notably, we find no association for children from high income families. Our findings indicate early life exposure to air pollution may reduce the prospects children from low-income families will achieve upward economic mobility and suggest variation in environmental quality may help explain observed variation in mobility outcomes.

Comparing Outcomes: The Relative Job-Market Performance of Former International Students

Canada is increasingly looking to international students as a source of post-secondary tuition revenues and new immigrants. We compare the labour-market performance of former international students (FISs) who studied at Canadian institutions through the first decade of the 2000s to their Canadian born-and educated (CBE), as well as to their foreign born-and-educated (FBE) counterparts. We find FISs outperform FBE immigrants by a substantial margin, but underperform CBE graduates from similar post-secondary programs. We also find evidence of a deterioration in FIS outcomes relative to both comparison groups. The contribution of our analysis is threefold. First, in comparing FIS and FBE immigrants, we obtain evidence that giving preference to Canadian-educated applicants in the Express Entry immigration system is optimal. Second, in comparing FISs with CBE individuals graduating from similar academic programs, the results are consistent with FISs experiencing job search frictions, discrimination, and language difficulties, thereby requiring better immigrant settlement policies. Finally, with three cohorts of FISs spanning the first decade of the 2000s, we find that there has been a deterioration in the labour-market performance of FISs as post-secondary institutions and governments have reached deeper into foreign student pools to meet their student and immigration demands. We argue that this deterioration is most consistent with a trade-off that has occurred, as the quality and supply of international students has not kept pace with the growth in demand. As Canada moves to increase its reliance on international students, monitoring the relative labour-market performance of FISs is critical.

Naturalization and labor market performance of immigrants in Germany

AbstractNaturalization may be a relevant policy instrument affecting immigrant integration in host‐country labor markets. We study the effect of naturalization on labor market outcomes of immigrants in Germany. We apply recent survey data and exploit a reform of naturalization rules in an instrumental variable estimation. In our sample of recent immigrants, linear regression yields positive correlations between naturalization and beneficial labor market outcomes. Once we account for the endogeneity of naturalization, most coefficients decline in magnitude and lose statistical significance: male immigrants’ labor market outcomes do not benefit significantly from naturalization. Naturalization reduces the risks of unemployment and welfare dependence for female immigrants. For males and females, the propensity to hold a permanent contract increases as a consequence of naturalization. The results are robust to modifications of samples and the instrument.