Sector Of Labor Market Research Articles

A panel data analysis of the formal-informal sector labour market linkages in South Africa

ABSTRACTThis study explores the labour market linkages between the informal and formal sectors, using the first four waves of the National Income Dynamics Study data. The main focus is on three groups of employed: worked in the formal sector in all waves; worked in the informal sector in all waves; moved between the two sectors across the waves. Only 27% of informal sector workers in wave 1 transitioned to the formal sector in wave 4; 38% remained in the informal sector while 33% had their status changed to either inactive or unemployed. The econometric analysis indicates that older and more educated individuals living in urban areas and coming from households with fewer old-age grant recipients are significantly more likely to work in the formal sector, whereas more educated white males are associated with a significantly greater likelihood of transitioning from informal to formal sector employment.

Loss of job-related right to healthcare associated with employment turnover: challenges for the Mexican health system

BackgroundThe Mexican health system segments access and right to healthcare according to worker position in the labour market. In this contribution we analyse how access and continuity of healthcare gets interrupted by employment turnover in the labour market, including its formal and informal sectors, as experienced by affiliates to the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) at national level, and of workers with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in Mexico City.MethodsUsing data from the National Employment and Occupation Survey, 2014, and from IMSS electronic medical records for workers in Mexico City, we estimated annual employment turnover rates to measure the loss of healthcare access due to labour market dynamics. We fitted a binary logistic regression model to analyse the association between sociodemographic variables and employment turnover. Lastly we analysed job-related access to health care in relation to employment turnover events.ResultsAt national level, 38.3% of IMSS affiliates experienced employment turnover at least once, thus losing the right to access to healthcare. The turnover rate for T2DM patients was 22.5%. Employment turnover was more frequent at ages 20–39 (38.6% national level; 28% T2DM) and among the elderly (62.4% national level; 26% T2DM). At the national level, higher educational levels (upper-middle, OR = 0.761; upper, OR = 0.835) and income (5 minimum wages or more, OR = 0.726) were associated with lower turnover. Being single and younger were associated with higher turnover (OR = 1.413). T2DM patients aged 40–59 (OR = 0.655) and with 5 minimum wages or more (OR = 0.401) experienced less turnover. Being a T2DM male patient increased the risk of experiencing turnover (OR = 1.166). Up to 89% of workers losing IMSS affiliation and moving on to other jobs failed to gain job-related access to health services. Only 9% gained access to the federal workers social security institute (ISSSTE).ConclusionsTurnover across labour market sectors is frequently experienced by the workforce in Mexico, worsening among the elderly and the young, and affecting patients with chronic diseases. This situation needs to be prospectively addressed by health system policies that aim to expand the financial health protection during an employment turnover event.

Labour Market Adjustments to Financing Conditions under Sectoral Rigidities in the Euro Area

This paper analyses empirically the response of labour market indicators to changing financing conditions in a panel of 15 euro area countries from 1999Q1 to 2015Q4. Using a local projections approach, we estimate impulse responses of three margins of sectoral labour market adjustment – employment, hours worked and real wages. Consistent with recent results in the literature, we find contractionary financing shocks to depress all three indicators of the labour market. Furthermore, responses are asymmetric depending on the sign of the shock, different in magnitude depending on the sectoral composition, and sensitive to labour market institutions such as employment protection legislation and union density. Finally, labour market institutions seem to mainly affect the relative strength of the adjustment margins and not so much the overall response of the wage bill.

From Mobile Workers to Fellow Citizens and Back Again? The Future Status of EU Citizens in the UK

Growing concerns and hostility towards continuing large-scale flows of immigrants following the two rounds of EU enlargement and high levels of net migration played a major part in the Brexit referendum result for the UK to leave the EU. So too had welfare chauvinism, or the belief that welfare benefits should be restricted to citizens, come to the fore in negative attitudes to EU immigration, reflecting a rejection of EU migrants as fellow citizens. As the article shows, proposals as of summer 2017 for the status of current EU citizens in the UK indicate a desire by the UK government to incorporate current EU citizens within the far more restrictive British immigration rules, thereby curtailing some of their basic free movement rights, especially in relation to future family members. Leaked proposals for future EU citizens post-Brexit are to bring them within a single overall immigration system covering EU and non-EU migrants and applying differential rights of residence to skilled and less skilled, thereby stratifying EU migrants according to educational level and labour market sector. This would represent a return to the status of mobile workers with conditional rights of residence and social entitlements similar to those faced by non-EU migrants.

Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC): How Developed and Inclusive are Financial Systems in the GCC?

Financial systems in the GCC have developed significantly over the last couple of decades, but there appears to be further room for progress. The development of bank and equity markets has been supported by a combination of buoyant economic activity, a booming Islamic finance sector, and financial sector reforms. As a result, financial systems have deepened and, overall, the level of financial development compares well with emerging markets. However, it still lags advanced economies and, other than for Saudi Arabia, appears to be lower than would be expected given economic fundamentals, such as income levels. Financial development in the GCC has relied to a large extent on banks, while debt markets and nonbank financial institutions are less developed and access to equity markets is narrow. The non-bank financial institutions—pension funds, asset management and finance companies, and insurance—remain small. Domestic debt markets are underdeveloped. While equity markets appear to be well developed by market size, they are dominated by a few large (and often public-sector) companies. GCC countries have made progress on financial inclusion, but gaps remain in some important areas. Access to finance for SMEs, women, and youth, in particular, appears relatively low. This may partly reflect social norms, low levels of participation of women in the labor market and private sector activity, and the high level of youth unemployment. Further financial development and inclusion is likely to be associated with stronger economic growth in the GCC countries. While there is uncertainty surrounding the empirical estimates in the paper, further progress with financial development and/or inclusion is likely to go hand-in-hand with stronger growth. The growth benefits, however, are likely to vary across countries depending on the current level of financial development and inclusion. To realize these growth benefits, reforms to strengthen access to finance for SMEs, women, and youth are needed. Addressing institutional weaknesses and promoting financial sector competition would help boost access to finance for SMEs. Reforms to enhance financial literacy and improve SME governance structures and insolvency frameworks are critical. Other reforms encouraging female and youth employment and the use of emerging technologies in finance also appear promising. Additional reforms to foster financial development should focus on developing debt markets and making stock markets more accessible to a larger pool of companies and investors. To grow domestic debt markets, the authorities should develop a government yield curve, seek to increase market liquidity through secondary market trading, and ensure requirements for private issuance are not onerous. Stock market reforms should focus on enhancing corporate governance and investor protection, removing restrictions on foreign ownership, and encouraging financial market competition. The latter would also help the development of non-bank financial institutions.

Implications of Trade Policies in Segmented Factor Markets—A General Equilibrium Approach

This paper, using a three-sector full-employment general equilibrium model with segmented domestic factor markets, explains how and under what conditions a policy of import restriction using tariffs can be beneficial for a small, open economy compared to the import liberalisation policy, contrary to the conventional results. Also, inflows of foreign-owned capital to an export sector within the economy’s export processing zone coupled with labour-augmenting type technology transfer, with protected import-competing sector, can improve national income, even without any distortion in the formal sector labour market. This simple application of competitive trade models establishes the fact that trade restrictions can promote growth and attract FDI for the developing countries, even when foreign capital enters one specific export sector of the economy.

THE YOUNGER MEDICAL SPECIALIST AT LABOR MARKET: EXPECTATIONS OF EMPLOYERS

The analysis of concepts and expectations of employers concerning level of professional competence, personal characteristics and moral attitudes of younger medical specialists was implemented. The main attention was paid to specifics of interaction between younger specialists and employers in conditions of modern labor market. The observed imbalance of demand and offer at sectoral labor market is, in particular, related to discrepancy of requirements of employers and expectations of applicants, poor channels of communication between employers and potential workers, inadequate level of interaction between universities and labor market. The expectations of younger specialists concerning future place of work is mainly related to notions about priority of availability of "good" diploma whereas employers are most of all interested in professional working experience an practical professional skills.

Asylum Seekers and the Labour Market: Spaces of Discomfort and Hostility

This article examines the relationship in the UK between asylum-seeking and the labour market. Since 2002, asylum-seekers have not been allowed to work unless they have waited over twelve months for an initial decision on their asylum claim. This policy change occurred as employment was considered a ‘pull factor’ encouraging unfounded asylum claims. Despite not having the right to work, asylum-seekers – and especially those whose applications for refugee status have been refused by the UK government – interact with the labour market in manifold ways. Drawing on an ESRC-funded study in the UK's Yorkshire and Humber region and related studies, this article argues that both asylum-seekers and refused asylum-seekers form a hyper-exploitable pool of ‘illegalised’ and unprotected workers. As a vital part of their survival terrain, work is largely experienced as for-cash labouring in low-paid labour market sectors where the spectre of exploitation and even ‘modern slavery’ are perpetual threats. Recent policy shifts are deepening such threats through creating increasingly ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘hostile’ environments for certain categories of migrants.

Contrasting prospects: the institutionalisation of VET for retail and office work in Norway

This article calls attention to the difficulty of institutionalising vocational education and training (VET) in the service sector in Norway, despite the growing importance of this sector for national economic performance. Drawing on interviews with apprentices, employers, stakeholders, representatives of trade unions and employer organisations, the article investigates the contrasting foundation for institutionalising the Sales trade and the Office and Administration trade. The article advocates an institutional-theoretical framework and a labour market lens in order to understand the differences observed. The findings indicate more promising prospects for the Sales trade, because the skilled sales assistant receives great responsibility among young unskilled co-workers in a rapidly expanding labour market sector, whereas lower level office tasks are being rationalised and transferred to employees with higher academic education. These contrasting features of the institutional environment have profound implications for the learning opportunities provided, and the institutionalisation prospects of VET for retail and office work.

Public Sector Employment Inequality in the United States and the Great Recession.

Historically in the United States, the public sector has served as an equalizing institution through the expansion of job opportunities for minority workers. This study examines whether the public sector continues to serve as an equalizing institution in the aftermath of the Great Recession. Using data from the Current Population Survey, I investigate changes in public sector employment between 2003 and 2013. My results point to a post-recession double disadvantage for black public sector workers: they are concentrated in a shrinking sector of the economy, and they are more likely than white and Hispanic public sector workers to experience job loss. These two trends are a historical break for the public sector labor market. I find that race and ethnicity gaps in public sector employment cannot be explained by differences in education, occupation, or any of the other measurable factors that are typically associated with employment. Among unemployed workers who most recently worked for the public sector, black women are the least likely to transition into private sector employment.

Labour Turnover, Employment Density and Employer Provided Training: Evidence from Vienna

We analyse the impact of regional and sectoral labour market characteristics as determinants of the supply of employer financed training. The results show that labour turnover has a robust negative impact and employment density a slightly less robust but also negative impact on the probability of a firm to provide employer financed training. Policies directed at increasing employer provided training therefore face substantial challenges in sectors and regions with high labour turnover and employment densities. These challenges are likely to be even larger when it comes to providing employer financed training for less skilled workers.

Local economic impact of boom and bust in mineral resource extraction in the United States: A spatial econometrics analysis

This paper examines how shocks in the U.S. mineral resource extraction (MRE) industry impact MRE-dependent counties using county level data between 1970- and 2012. A difference-in-difference fixed effects model and a spatial modeling to incorporate spatial heterogeneity and dependence among U.S. local areas that are in close geographical proximity are employed in this study. The results show that MRE industry employment grew faster during boom periods and slower during the bust period in MRE dependent counties. MRE earnings and earnings per worker grew slower during boom periods and faster during the bust period. The findings give evidence of negative spatial indirect spillover effects between neighboring counties’ MRE sector labor markets. An analysis of the effect of shocks in the MRE sector on the non-MRE sectors shows that in MRE dependent counties non-MRE sector employment grew slower during boom periods and faster during the bust period. Positive shocks in the MRE sector had no effect on the manufacturing sector labor market; however, negative shocks had a positively effect. Booms in the MRE sector positively impacted the construction sector, while negatively affecting the service and retail trade sectors’ labor markets in MRE dependent counties. Finally, this study finds that male population grew faster, while female population grew slower in the MRE dependent counties.

Varieties of universalism: post-1990s developments in the initial school-based model of VET in Finland and Sweden and implications for transitions to the world of work and higher education

The Nordic countries are often referred to as a group even though their education systems and training models are very different. The aim of this study is to advance understanding of those differences and compare the developments and organisation of initial vocational education and training (IVET) in Finland and Sweden since the 1990s as examples of school-based models of IVET in statist regimes. The research questions address the following: how these two countries have institutionalised school-based IVET since the 1990s; the kinds of legislative reforms that have been decisive for the construction of school-based IVET; and how the models of school-based IVET in these two countries allow access to higher education and the world of work. The analysis shows the heterogeneity of the statist model of school-based IVET systems in two Nordic countries and underlines differences with respect to school-to-work transitions between IVET and different labour market sectors.

What drives bank performance in transitions economies? The impact of reforms and regulations

This paper investigates the effects of financial regulations and structural reforms on the cost efficiency of the banking industries of 10 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries for the period 2004–2009. Cost efficiency scores are estimated using stochastic frontier analysis, whilst panel regressions examine the impact of regulation and liberalisation on bank performance using the EBRD transitional reform indicator and the Fraser economic freedom index. By considering both indexes we are able to account for the effects of progress towards more sound banking practices as well as the impact of the credit market, labor market and business sector regulatory regimes on bank efficiency. Our empirical analysis shows that structural reforms on labor and business markets exert a positive impact on bank performance. In line with the public interest view, we find the effect of credit regulation banking on cost efficiency is positive. We also find that better capitalized banks are more cost efficient.

Wages in and out of the public sector: new insights for six selected European countries

This paper aims to draw a comparative picture of some basic features of the public sector labour market in six European economies (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom). Relying upon the Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (EU-SES), the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition was applied to various subsets of the workforce. Issues of comparability are emphasised, by posing civil servants against their appropriate counterparts, i.e. employees from large private firms, by considering jobs and professional figures within the same sectors (Education, Human health, and Local utilities), and by considering workers characterised by similar levels of education. We consider not only hourly earnings but also monthly earnings. We find a wage premium in the public sector in the UK and Spain and to some extent in Italy (only for hourly earnings). Less educated employees working in the public sector fare generally better in terms of the premium compared to their more educated colleagues.

The Intersection of Citizenship Status, STEM Education, and Expected Labor Market Participation in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

AbstractCitizenship status influences the impact of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education on the youth labor market participation in the Arabian Gulf. This research examines the relationship between citizenship status, STEM education, and expected labor market participation in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, and examines the intervening effects of information and communication technology (ICT) based instruction, specifically. The 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) provides both labor market expectations and STEM education data from all participating GCC countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Results suggest that ICT‐enhanced STEM education differently influences the human capital development of Gulf national and expatriate youth. For example, GCC nationals do not emphasize STEM education as an avenue for employment, while expatriate youth do. In particular, as Gulf national youths' parents' education level increases, students are less likely to think they need to do well in science to get the job they want. This is indicative of a broader trend in the Gulf nations to rely more on non‐education‐related factors such as family influence or connections for social, economic, and political mobility. In contrast, results also suggest that while STEM education contributes to potential private sector labor market participation among Gulf national youth, expatriate youth are more likely to expect to need or use STEM in the labor market.

Entre mitos y realidades: ciudades mexicanas que concentran clase creativa

El propósito del presente documento consiste en realizar un estudio exploratorio sobre los atributos demográficos y económicos de las ciudades de México en donde se concentra la clase creativa, es decir, aquel segmento de la oferta ocupacional en el mercado urbano de trabajo que se compone por profesionistas, profesores universitarios, investigadores, trabajadores del arte, espectáculos y deportes. El término clase creativa fue propuesto por Richard Florida (2002), y a este segmento de la población ocupada se le ha dado una connotación de ventaja competitiva para la ciudad en donde reside, de tal manera que se ha tratado de comprobar la relación entre el desempeño económico local y la presencia de dicha clase. Aquí no se utiliza a la clase creativa como variable explicativa del comportamiento económico local. Más bien se busca aportar elementos sobre las características de las ciudades con mayor intensidad de clase creativa en su estructura ocupacional. Para alcanzar el propósito se realiza un modelo de regresión logística multivariada. Los resultados permiten concluir que las ciudades donde se concentraba la clase creativa en 2010 eran preferentemente capitales estatales y/o con baja participación de la producción manufacturera en su estructura económica. Asimismo, los ocupados en la clase creativa tuvieron mayor tasa de migración interna con respecto a la población ocupada total. Los lugares de origen y destino de la migración creativa fueron ciudades especializadas, ambas en este tipo de ocupados.

Labour turnover, employment density and employer provided training: Evidence from Vienna

We analyse the impact of regional and sectoral labour market characteristics as determinants of the supply of employer financed training using a unique data set on employer provided training in Vienna. According to the results labour turnover has a robust negative impact and employment density a slightly less robust but also negative impact on the probability of a firm to provide employer financed training. Policies directed at increasing employer provided training may therefore face substantial challenges in sectors and regions with high labour turnover and employment densities. These challenges are likely to be even larger when it comes to providing employer financed training for less skilled workers.

Labor Market Need Analysis as Basis for the Foundedness of Occupational Standards in the Field of Maritime Management

This paper presents the results of a maritime sector labor market research conducted to identify key tasks, specific knowledge and skills required for the development of appropriate occupational standards in the field of maritime management. Data were collected by survey of a sample of potential employers for the professions of “Manager in Marinas and Nautical Tourism“ and “Maritime Personnel Training and Education Coordinator”. Research results indicate both professions are recognized by prospective employers and that appropriate standards need to be developed.

From economic integration to socioeconomic inclusion: day labor worker centers as social intermediaries

ABSTRACTDay labor worker centers have emerged as an important mode of regulatory action in the informal economy of major US cities. Research suggests that these organizations are beneficial in improving employment outcomes experienced by migrant workers engaged in this labor market sector. Yet, the extent to which these organizations impact the social integration of this working population remains relatively undeveloped in the literature. Using data from the National Day Labor Survey, we examine the impact of day labor worker centers on the level of social inclusion experienced by migrant day laborers. We find that worker centers have a modest, but statistically significant, impact on the levels of social integration experienced by this working population and that this varies from city to city. Ultimately we argue that the social intermediary role of these organizations may offer a type of counter mobilization necessary to promote the socioeconomic integration of this working population, but that issues of capacity remain.