Labor Market Experience Research Articles

UNDEREMPLOYMENT AND WORKERS’ DESKILLING: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE

This paper analyzed the Nigerian labour market experience in relation to underemployment and its linkage to workers’ deskilling. The paper adopted the desk review approach by relying on existing data on underemployment from the official records of the accredited government agency (National Bureau of Statistics) saddled with the responsibility of keeping such data. Other supportive data were generated from the International Labour Organization (ILO). The secondary data (which are purely descriptive) from the official records of this agency and international institution were presented, analyzed and used as the basis for explanation of the phenomenon of underemployment and its linkage to workers’ deskilling. The result showed that out of the 72.90% workers who were employed in the 2nd quarter of 2020, 28.57% were underemployed. Another 22.8% represent the underemployed workers out of 66.72% of people engaged in working activities in the 4th quarter of 2020. The paper concludes that a significant percentage of workers in the Nigerian labour market are in jobs that under-utilize their training, skill and technical know-how, and that underemployment as observed in the Nigerian labour market is linked to workers’ deskilling. However, the paper recommends that the labour market operators should embark on retraining and reskilling the affected workers. This could serve as a panacea to deskilling, especially in the short-run.
 
 Keywords: Underemployment, Workers’ deskilling, Labour market, Skill underutilization, Nigeria

Organizationally Imprinted Networks and Gender Disparities in the Labor Market

How do organizations gender network hiring? There is ample research suggesting that network hiring contributes to gendered outcomes for workers and organizations and that the hiring organization is key to this process. However, the hiring firm is not the only relevant organizational context for labor market networks, since workers’ past labor market experiences are likely to have shaped the networks they carry forward as they search for new employment opportunities. The settings in which workers originally formed connections may therefore also influence the value of job movers’ contacts. This paper uses administrative data on job moves across the Danish labor market from 2014-2016 and an innovative matching strategy to examine how the gender composition of two organizations - hiring establishments and the establishments in which a mover and their contact previously worked together - influences the value of contacts. We find that ties to male managers are particularly useful overall, and in both organizational settings, ties are most useful when employees are in the gender majority. Our findings show how successfully managing a diverse workforce is important for the long-term careers of workers and suggests that access to authority figures should be a priority of organizational networking and mentorship programs.

The coloniality of labor: Migrant Black African youths' experiences of looking for and finding work in an Australian deindustrializing city

AbstractThis paper explores migrant Black African youths' experiences of looking for and finding work in Newcastle, a deindustrializing Australian city. Data for this paper were drawn from interviews conducted with young people who migrated to Australia as temporary and permanent residents. Drawing on concepts of coloniality, racialization, bodywork, and hidden labor, this paper demonstrates how, when looking for work, participants' names get attached to their racialized bodies—a situation which deems them as suitable or not for specific kinds of work. Their strategies of finding work differ according to their migration status; that is, temporary residents draw on their personal networks, whereas some permanent residents with full citizenship rights rely on social welfare support services to find work. However, irrespective of the different strategies used to find work, they all end up doing jobs that they described as “work which others do not wish to do.” I argue that these experiences re‐articulate the coloniality of labor because, as workers in these jobs, they play a crucial role in the economic transformation taking place in the city due to deindustrialization. This is not merely because they form part of the workforce responsible for working in unwanted jobs, but because they are also consumers of Newcastle's emerging welfare support and educational services sectors. The paper contributes to an understanding of how race shapes the labor market experiences of racialized youth in deindustrializing labor markets.

Labor Market Experience and Returns to College Education in Fast Growing Economies

Labor Market Experience and Returns to College Education in Fast Growing Economies

Do Stepmothers Pay a Wage Penalty?

There is an abundance of research on the motherhood wage penalty, but few studies have looked at stepmotherhood and its association with women’s work hours, labor market experience, and wages. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979–2016) this study presents results of descriptive statistics and fixed effects regressions. We find that married residential stepmotherhood is a relatively transitory experience. Further, the transition to parenthood was associated with a reduction in all women’s time at work, but was smaller for stepmothers and larger for biological mothers. Compared to married biological mothers, residential stepmothers spent more time at work, accumulated more labor market experience, and did not pay a motherhood wage penalty. These results broaden our understanding of how different pathways to motherhood may impact the nature of women’s relationships with their children, and in turn, other aspects of women’s lives including women’s work–family experiences.

Who can become a full member of the club?—Results from a conjoint survey experiment on public attitudes about the naturalisation of non‐EU migrants in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark

AbstractIn this article, we study attitudes towards the naturalisation of non‐European (EU) migrants in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. This is done using a conjoint experiment. Respondents are presented with profiles of non‐EU‐migrants, whose attributes are varied over labour market status, education, language skills, time lived in the destination country, family relations, religious background and gender. We find a preference for granting citizenship to non‐EU migrants with education and labour market experience, thus supporting theories of economic reasoning. We also find a preference for granting citizenship to non‐EU migrants with non‐Muslim backgrounds, family attachment to natives and language skills, thus supporting theories of preferences for cultural similarity. We find these patterns to be stable across the four countries despite differences in citizenship rules and discourses. The patterns are even stable when comparing the respondents' age, gender, education, migrant status, voting patterns and general views about migration. The natives' selection of new citizens is explained by a novel theoretical argument of citizenship being a club‐good.

Gig-jobs: Stepping stones or dead ends?

How useful is work experience from the gig economy for labor market entrants searching for traditional wage jobs? We conducted a correspondence study in Sweden, comparing callback rates for recent high school graduates with (i) gig-experience, (ii) traditional experience, and (iii) unemployment history. We also study heterogeneous responses with respect to perceived foreign background. Our findings suggest that gig-experience is more valuable than unemployment, but less useful than traditional experience for majority applicants. Strikingly however, no form of labor market experience increases the callback rate for minority workers.

Tied Migrant Labor Market Integration: Deconstructing Labor Market Subjectivities in South Africa.

The South African labor market is characterized by a high degree of inflexibility and complexity which poses significant challenges for both indigenes and migrants looking to be integrated into the labor market. These challenges are likely to be more poignant for international migrants as they face additional barriers owing to a chronically high employment rate, xenophobic sentiments, and racial exclusion. For female tied migrants, gender bias, expressed through migration policies and legislation, adds yet another layer of complexity to long-term aspirations of settling in South Africa. How well tied migrants fare in the South African labor market is an important matter for consideration. Using an intersectional approach and the theory of governmentality, this study sought to deconstruct the labor market subjectivities of tied migrants in South Africa. This paper used a qualitative approach, with a narrative and interpretivist research paradigm, on female tied migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa who either accompanied their husbands or followed them to South Africa in a process of family reunification. Although 13 interviews were carried out in total, as part of a broader study, the narratives of six participants were included in this study, to zone in on labor market experiences. The study found that despite their high human capital, tied migrants are not likely to be well integrated into the South African labor market. Their inequality in the South African labor market was attributed to their gender, ethnicity, race, migrant status and locality and various intersections thereof through which they are subjected to informality, immobility and precarity.

THE TRANSITION FROM EDUCATION TO THE LABOUR MARKET DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: THE ATTITUDES AND EXPERIENCES OF UNEMPLOYED YOUTH IN LITHUANIA

This paper presents a subjective evaluation of the attitudes and experiences in the Lithuanian labour market of currently unemployed youths (aged 18 to 35) registered at the public employment service (PES). The main focus is on identifying the main issues related to the successful transition of youths from education to the labour market. Research questions: How do currently unemployed young people evaluate their prospects on the labour market? What is the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on youth transitions? What are the obstacles in the search for a (first) job? The study is based on survey research that was carried out in Lithuania from February to April 2021. A total of 453 young people who are currently unemployed and registered at the PES participated in the study. The results reveal that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected more vulnerable young people with a lower educational level and less work experience living in rural areas. Respondents with lower levels of education indicated greater difficulties in the search for a first job and in obtaining a stable working position. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the transition from education to the labour market for young women more than for men.

Starting and Subsequent Earnings of Young Workers in Different Sized Firms

Based upon the highly innovative Project TALENT Longitudinal Database, this study tracks the starting earnings and subsequent early earnings growth of young males who began their work careers at either a smaller (<100 employees) or larger private firm more than a generation ago. Prior evidence based upon less rich databases found that earnings were systematically higher in larger firms but did not have access to many other variables that could affect projected earnings which are available in the TALENT database. Earnings regressions are estimated here including not only usual explanatory variables of years of schooling and labor market experience, but also adding other variables pertaining to prior job experience, military service, IQ, socioeconomic background and some other factors. The findings indicate that while starting earnings of those in this database were indeed higher in larger firms, the gap evaporated fairly quickly with projected earnings of those in smaller firms featuring a small earnings premium. The results here suggest guidance based upon the body of prior evidence may have been less reliable than thought, and that evidence itself may not provide as useful a baseline as desired for subsequent research addressing whether this pattern continues for recent cohorts.

Retirement Migration and Precarity: Material and Social Aspects

Discussions of precarity in later life have tended to focus on the uncertainties of material resources, and the feelings of anxiety that this evokes (e.g., Lain et al. 2019) as some older people thus face the risk of being excluded from the broader society. Although scholars often point to inequalities, such as those based on class and gender, as having an influence on the likelihood of older people experiencing such precarity, ageism is considered only to the extent that it can exacerbate the impact of these statuses through, for instance, labor market experiences. Here, we expand upon the impact of ageism on the social aspects of precarity: the loss of recognition and respect as a person that is at the core of social bonds. Drawing on qualitative interviews we have conducted among Swiss, British, and U.S. older people who migrated to cheaper countries in retirement, we demonstrate that ageism can influence precarity regardless of classes. We find that even among wealthier older migrants, who otherwise might fit the image of the retiree seeking an active lifestyle in a sunny location, the attempt to escape the devaluation heaped upon older people in their original country plays an important role. In their new countries, retired migrants of all classes felt that they were valued and part of a community, and this differed from the ageism in their home countries. We thus argue that ageism be considered in future analyses of precarity in later life.

Эффективные образовательные технологии для профессионально-личностного формирования будущего учителя в вузе

Professional mobility is largely based on the ability to varying professional correlation of university knowledge, skills and abilities with the requirements of the labor market and centuries-old established experience of the life of society. All this presupposes the objective necessity of introducing modern educational technologies into professional training carried out in universities. The question is to determine the most rational and effective educational technologies for the professional and personal formation of a future teacher at a university.

Wages of Skilled Migrant and Native Employees in Germany: New Light on an Old Issue

The German Council of Economic Experts (GCEE) argues for a labor market-driven immigration of skilled migrants into Germany to overcome a decline in workforce due to demographic ageing. We pick up this current debate on skilled immigration by analyzing the migrant-native wage differential for skilled workers in Germany and consider various information on firms. Our results indicate that the wage gap is mainly explained by observable characteristics, especially labor market experience and firm characteristics. However, we find lower rewards for migrants’ labor market experience than for natives (flatter experience curves). Our results show that these differences in experience curves become negligible in the long run. Moreover, we reveal firms’ wage-setting policies: Firms evaluate a worker's education independent of migration backgrounds, as migrants possess the same productivity levels as their German counterparts in the same occupations and task levels. Due to Germany's heterogeneous immigration structure, we are able to compare the results for different migrant subgroups and, thus, derive valuable insights into the migrant-native wage structure with a wide reach beyond Germany. This article adds to current debates in various industrialized countries with demographic ageing patterns, as it focuses on an important group for domestic labor markets: skilled immigrants.

Next Steps for the Relative Education Hypothesis

The relative education hypothesis states that in contexts where university degrees are scarce, workers with bachelor’s degrees are sought after and enter cognitively skilled occupations; but as education expands across birth cohorts, some workers with bachelor’s degrees are unable to maintain their position in the labor market. In an earlier ASR article (Horowitz 2018), I found support for this argument; however, Furey (2021) shows model instability in estimates of the education–skill relationship. We should treat the results from these two studies as a range of possible estimates, and carefully consider interpretation of the findings in the context of the selected reference categories. Future revisions of the relative education hypothesis should consider that absolute and relative education effects might not shift concurrently, and also that labor market experiences may vary considerably by field of study and occupation.

Relative to Whom? Comment on “Relative Education and the Advantage of a College Degree”

To understand the relative advantage of a bachelor’s degree, we must consider the question: relative to whom? Using the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, Horowitz (2018) argues that educational expansion between 1971 and 2010 decreased college graduates’ skill usage and eroded their advantages relative to individuals without a postsecondary degree. However, the comparison group—individuals without a postsecondary degree—is inconsistently defined over time due to a change to the CPS in 1992; this group also includes individuals without a high school degree, high school graduates, and people with some college but no degree—three groups that have heterogeneous labor market experiences. I replicate Horowitz’s analysis and repeat it using two alternative education categorization schemes that address these limitations. I show that college graduates’ absolute and relative advantages in skill usage depend substantially on how we measure education. Notably, I find that college graduates maintain persistent relative advantages in skill usage when compared to high school graduates and individuals with some college, even as education expands. Although no classification system perfectly accounts for the full variation of the population, my findings demonstrate that researchers must carefully define key variables and comparison groups, especially when considering relative effects.

The Labor Market Earnings of Veterans: Is Military Experience More or Less Valuable than Civilian Experience?

We assess the labor market experiences and earnings of military veterans, focusing on three major outcomes, among others, controlling for a wide array of demographic characteristics and industry and occupational fixed effects. First, we find that male and female veterans receive civilian earnings nearly equivalent to nonveteran men and women. This finding implies that military experience is valued in the labor market similarly to foregone civilian experience. Second, veterans are clustered in occupations with somewhat lower than average employment and real earnings growth, and in metropolitan areas with lower levels and growth of real GDP per capita. Third, veterans experience lower returns to formal educational investments (e.g., college) than do nonveterans. Veterans realize earnings gains from professional licenses, but their returns are lower than for nonveterans. These gains are concentrated among science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) jobs, suggesting that veterans could help meet the growing demand for tech talent and artificial intelligence skills.

Can Regional Gender Ideologies Account for Variation of Gender Pay Gaps? The Case of Germany

While research often invokes gender disparities in wage-determining characteristics to explain gender pay gaps, why these gender disparities and gender pay gaps vary across contexts has received less attention. Therefore, I analyze how subnational gender ideologies predict gender pay gaps in two ways: as directly affecting gender pay gaps and as indirectly predicting gender pay gaps through intermediate gender disparities in determinants of wage. The analyses are based on German survey data (SOEP 2014–2018) supplemented with regional-level statistics. First, I leverage regional differences in predictors of gender ideologies to estimate region-specific gender ideologies. Mapping these gender ideologies across Germany reveals substantial regional variation. Second, multi-level models provide region-specific gender disparities in wage determinants and gender pay gaps. Results reveal that traditional gender ideologies are associated with women gaining less labor market experience and working less often in full-time jobs or supervising positions. In addition to this indirect association, gender ideologies directly predict the extent of adjusted gender pay gaps. These associations contribute novel evidence on regional variation of gender ideologies and how they can underlie explanations often invoked for gender pay gaps.

Gender inequality and caste: Field experimental evidence from India

Using a field experiment in India where patients are randomly assigned to rank among a set of physicians of the same gender but with different castes and years of experience, we show that the differences in patients’ physician choices are consistent with gender-based statistical discrimination. Labor market experience cannot easily overcome the discrimination that female doctors suffer. Further, we find that gender discrimination is greater for lower caste doctors, who typically suffer from caste discrimination. Given the increasing share of professionals from a lower caste background, our results suggest that the ‘intersectionality’ between gender and caste leads to increased gender inequality among professionals in India.

Financial Stress Among Latino Adults in California During COVID-19.

We study the impact of COVID-19 on stress, and especially on financial stress, among Latino adults in California. We take a mixed methods approach and rely on quantitative and qualitative data for our analysis. We recruited 84 low- and moderate-income (LMI) Latino adults in California through the Understanding America Study (UAS) Internet Panel who also participated in the Mobile Financial Diary (MFD) project, which took place during 2018 − 2019. We analyze data about personal experiences during COVID-19 in October 2020 and compare this to data collected during the period from August to October 2018. Our study portrays the experiences of California Latino adults who were predominantly born in the USA and are likely to be working and speak English. We also observe that a large percentage of our participants had health insurance and relatively high levels of educational attainment. We find contradictory results from our quantitative measures, where one of our indicators of financial behavior and well-being showed a significant increase (Financial Health Score), and the other (Financial Well-Being Scale) showed a significant decrease during COVID-19. Anxiety (GAD-7) and depression (PHQ) measures show no significant changes during COVID-19 in comparison to 2018. Nonetheless, our qualitative data analysis shows that many of our participants were experiencing major stressors during the pandemic associated with labor market experiences and family circumstances. In our qualitative data analysis, we also observe that women seemed to have been affected the most by the pandemic.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41996-021-00087-0.

The Motherhood Penalty in Context: Assessing Discrimination in a Polarized Labor Market

Prior research provides important insights into employer discrimination against mothers but has focused exclusively on college-educated mothers in professional and managerial occupations. As a result, we lack evidence about whether less-educated mothers navigating the low-wage labor market experience similar disadvantages and whether the mechanisms underlying discrimination vary across contexts. These gaps are important because more- and less-educated mothers increasingly possess distinct resources and face unique demands both at home and at work, which may impact employer perceptions of conflicts between motherhood and job performance. This study reports results from an original field experiment in which 2,210 fictitious applications were submitted to low-wage service and professional/managerial job openings across six U.S. cities, experimentally manipulating signals of motherhood status. Findings provide causal evidence that employers in both contexts discriminate against mothers relative to equally qualified childless women. However, within labor market segments, distinct job demands listed in job advertisements are associated with stronger discrimination: time pressure, collaboration, and travel in professional/managerial jobs and schedule instability in low-wage service jobs. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the mechanisms underlying mothers' disadvantages in an increasingly polarized labor market.