Low-skilled Jobs Research Articles

Work as Foraging: A Smartphone Study of Job Search and Employment after Prison

The past several decades have seen a decline in employment rates and labor force participation, particularly among low-skilled, minority men living in poor areas. As low-skill jobs disappear from p...

Низкооплачиваемые рабочие места на российском рынке труда: есть ли выход и куда он ведет?

The paper discusses the composition and dynamics of low paid workers whose hourly wages do not exceed two thirds of the median value. Using RLMS-HSE data for 2002-2016, we analyze how the size and the composition of low-paid employment, and the likelihood of being low-paid have changed over time. Our findings suggest that the size of the group has decreased from 30 до 24% of the total employment over the study period, while the chances of being low paid are significantly higher for those who have lower level of education, who are employed in low skilled jobs, and who reside outside large cities. However, the main focus of the study is on the earnings mobility of low paid workers. The key question is whether the low paid state is a dead-end and a long-term trap or is it just a stepping stone towards the high pay group? In order to answer this question, we apply a dynamic random effects multinomial logit-model, which allows to control for unobserved heterogeneity and to account for initial conditions problem. The study demonstrates high degree of structural dependence: two out of three low paid workers cannot exit this state over the year. This trap effect is stronger for women than for men. Though the stepping stone effect is also present, it is much weaker and relates to only one out of four low paid workers.

Torn Apart? The Impact of Manufacturing Employment Decline on Black and White Americans

This paper examines the impact of manufacturing employment decline on the socio-economic outcomes within and between black and white Americans from 1960 to 2010. Exploiting variation across cities and over time, the analysis shows that manufacturing decline negatively impacted blacks (men, women, and children) in terms of their wages, employment, marriage rates, house values, poverty rates, death rates, single parenthood, teen motherhood, child poverty, and child mortality. In addition, the decline in manufacturing increased inequality within the black community in terms of overall wages and the gaps between education groups in wages, employment, and marriage rates. Many of the same patterns are found for whites, but to a lesser degree leading to larger gaps between whites and blacks in wages, marriage patterns, poverty, single-parenthood, and death rates. The results are robust to the inclusion or exclusion of several control variables, and the use of a shift-share instrument for the local manufacturing employment share. Overall, the decline in manufacturing is reducing socio-economic conditions in general while increasing inequality within and between racial groups which is consistent with a stronger general equilibrium effect of the loss of highly-paid, lower-skilled jobs on the less-educated segments of the population.

Optimal Minimum Wage Policy with Voluntary Participation

This paper considers optimal minimum wage policy in a low-ability labor market in the presence of a subsistence allowance and a participation externality. In a market with heterogenous workers and homogeneous low-skilled jobs, a low ability worker's participation decision has a chilling effect on job creation which the worker does not internalize. Absent a minimum wage, subsistence allowance sets both a lower bound on individual incomes and a threshold ability level for labor market participation. A binding minimum wage acquires the latter role. It helps to address the externality by excluding the least able from the market while the subsistence allowance continues to meet minimal nutritional requirements. Quantitatively, while the externality is shown to be important, the minimum wage is not a very effective means of addressing it.

Labour migrants and rural change: The “mobility transformation” of Hitra/Frøya, Norway, 2005–2015

After the 2004 and 2007 EU enlargements, large numbers of Eastern European labour migrants settled in rural destinations in Western Europe where they predominantly found low-skilled manual labour jobs in rural industries. These labour migrants differ from other types of rural migrants (e.g., domestic in- and out-migrants, lifestyle and amenity migrants, international refugees and asylum seekers) and represent distinct challenges and opportunities for the host rural communities—for example in terms of novel forms of social inequalities and cultural diversities. This paper discusses the dynamics of transnational labour mobilities and their consequences for rural Europe by investigating the case of the Hitra/Frøya community, until recently a traditionalist rural community in Mid-Norway. As a result of large-scale labour migration, over the last decade the region has developed into a genuine high-mobility, transnational rural community and is now characterised by its heterogeneous social fabric. From the local elites’ perspective, which seems to have hegemonic status in the region, the transformation is a successful, triple-win situation: The community at large develops a more sustainable economy and sees population growth and reduced social problems, the locals enjoy the boosted economy and its many benefits, and the in-migrants escape economic austerity in their homelands and are successfully integrated into their host communities. However, stories told by labour migrants provide important nuances to the narrative of success and suggest processes of social fragmentation, polarisation, and contestation. The paper demonstrates how contemporary forms of rural mobilities may confront the traditional structures of rural societies, generate novel social divides and multi-local identities and everyday practices. Methodologically, the paper employs a mixed-methods approach and analyses a variety of materials: statistical materials, public documents, interviews with key informants in the local rural community, and in-depth individual interviews and focus group sessions with migrants.

Busting the myth of low-skilled workers – destabilizing EU LLL policies through the life stories of Danes in low-skilled jobs

In the EU, ambitious objectives have been set for education and training since the adoption of the Lisbon Agenda in 2000. The policies aim among other things to empower the individual through participation in lifelong learning which is seen as both a right and a duty: ‘People need to want and to be able to take their lives into their own hands – to become in short, active citizens’ (CEC, 2000, p. 7). However, not all citizens are taking part in lifelong learning and consequently the EU and its member states have set up policies with a ‘particular focus on active and preventative measures for the unemployed and inactive persons’ (CEC, 2006, p.1). ‘Inactive’ persons comprise different groups which are marginalised in terms of participation in lifelong learning, among others ‘low-skilled’ who have a lower participation rate in education and training activities (Cedefop, 2013). In this article, the aim is to destabilize the political discourse on ‘low-skilled’ through individual narratives of being in low-skilled jobs. Whereas the problem of being low-skilled from a political perspective is represented as psycho-social problems of the individual, the narratives point to the complexity of people in low-skilled jobs and the role of structure to ‘low-skilledness’. The narratives open up issues of power and the historical arbitrary distinctions between skilled and unskilled in the Danish labour market. It opens up for how the educational structures produce ‘low-skilled’ people, especially in the transition from basic vocational education and training into an apprenticeship. The article points to the narrow focus of policies on the ‘supply’ side of lifelong learning and less on the ‘demand’ side of a ‘needy’ global labour market in which precarious jobs are no longer limited to low-skilled. The article draws on Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be?’ (1999, 2009) and narrative inquiry.

Inégalités et discrimination à l’embauche sur le marché du travail algérien

Nous présentons les résultats d’un test de correspondance destiné à mesurer l’effet du genre sur la probabilité de convocation à un entretien d’embauche dans la région d’Oran en Algérie. Le protocole expérimental consiste à répondre à des offres d’emploi dans le domaine de la comptabilité par 300 candidatures fictives de profil identique que seul le genre distingue. Contrairement à ce qui est souvent admis, la discrimination brute et conditionnelle révèle un net favoritisme à l’égard des candidatures féminines pour les différents postes considérés de la profession comptable, laquelle s’avère en tension. Au-delà de ce paradoxe de discrimination positive en faveur des femmes, l’explication peut résider dans l’acceptation présumée de salaires inférieurs par les femmes, conduisant à un cantonnement dans des emplois peu qualifiés.

Developing an analytical framework for understanding the emergence of de‑professionalisation in health, social care and education sectors

This article aims to develop an analytical framework for understanding the context in which a process of de-professionalisation exists within an employment culture dominated by capitalism, globalisation and inequality. It specifically focuses upon experiences arising in health, social care and education sectors typifying that found within the British Welfare State during late modernity. Different theoretical definitions are presented to introduce an argument for a multi-dimensional approach. For example de-professionalisation may cover the removal from professional control, influence, manipulation or a destabilisation of a conventional mode of professionalisation and professional ties. Alternatively it may embody causation to appear unprofessional; or to discredit or deprive of professional status; also privately may be experienced as a weakening of status, respect or tendency away from a position of strength or equal status and be associated with measures for lessening the need for specialist knowledge and expertise. This analysis is based on a review of recent policy and practice evidence to support the notion that de-professionalisation may be defined through a lens of ‘cuts to services’ and job insecurity. It includes a case study covering the strike by NHS junior doctors which it is argued has had an impact on the image of ‘doctors as professionals’, resulting in a potential loss of public trust. De-professionalisation may be defined by financial cuts to staff training and through critiquing models of current training; or by a lowering of morale, a demoralisation or pervasive denigration of the workforce. Lastly this process may be considered as an outcome of low productivity in the workplace where a rise in low-skilled jobs becomes blamed for static wages. Increases in productivity come about as a result of deploying better raw materials, better trained or educated labour or better machines. Ordinary workers seem to have enjoyed few of the benefits of economic growth. Keywords: ideological roots of de-professionalisation; neo-liberalism, Taylorism/Post-Fordism; health, social care and education providers; service cutbacks; reductions in training; workforce morale and productivity

Informal search, bad search?: the effects of job search method on wages among rural migrants in urban China

The use of informal job search method is prevalent in many countries. There is, however, no consensus in the literature on whether it actually matters for wages, and if it does, what are the underlying mechanisms. We empirically examine these issues specifically for rural migrants in urban China, a country where one of the largest domestic migration in human history has occurred over the past decades. We find that there exists a significant wage penalty for those migrant workers who have conducted their search through informal channels, despite their popularity. Our further analysis suggests two potential reasons for the wage penalty: (1) the informal job search sends a negative signal (of workers’ inability to successfully find a job in a competitive market) to potential employers, resulting in lower wages, and (2) there exists a trade-off between wages and search efficiency for quicker entry into local labor market. We also find some evidence that the informal job search may lead to low-skilled jobs with lower wages. We do not find strong evidence supporting alternative explanations.

Barriers for Highly Qualified A8 Immigrants in the UK Labour Market

The number of migrants arriving in the UK from the EU accession countries has been higher than projected. The evidence indicates that they have been over-represented in low-paid and low-skilled jobs. This is arguably transitory and there should be good prospects of upward mobility. Over-qualification among A8 migrants, measured using the Annual Population Survey data, is examined in this article. The findings show that A8 migrants have been subject to migration penalties at the high end of the UK labour market. There are persistent labour market disadvantages for A8 migrants in the UK and their over-qualification may be a long-term concern.

Why the youth are so eager for university education? Evidence from Iran’s labor market

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to estimate the wage difference between overeducated and adequately educated workers in a sample of semi-skilled and low-skill occupations in Iran’s labor market. The objective is to see if overeducated employees in these occupations enjoy higher wages in comparison to their adequately educated co-workers.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use the propensity score matching (PSM) model to estimate the wage difference between overeducated and adequately educated workers in a sample of semi-skilled and low-skill occupations in Iran’s labor market. The PSM method allows the authors to prevent selection bias by comparing each group of overeducated workers with a matched group of adequately educated workers with similar socio-economic characteristics.FindingsThe results show that in Iran’s labor market, the overeducated workers enjoy a wage premium in the range of 10-25 percent for their excess education when they have to work in semi- or low-skill occupations. While this relative advantage has gradually declined for private sector employees over the period 2001-2013, it has remained stable for public sector jobs. The result is attributable to the fact that salary and benefits for public sector employees are directly linked to education attainment and their work experience. The findings show that the relative wage advantage of overeducation is larger for the younger employees with ten or fewer years of experience who have more education than older workers. Overall these findings offer an explanation for the strong desire of Iranian youth for university education. If a university graduate finds a job that matches her/his specialization she/he will enjoy a higher salary than a high school graduate. If she/he has to accept a semi-skilled or low-skill job for which she/he is overeducated, she/he still enjoys a wage premium over her/his co-workers who are not overeducated.Originality/valueThe analysis makes three unique contributions: first, the authors use a unique and detailed micro-data for an economy (Iran) in which the public sector dominates the private sector. The authors investigate the hypothesis for private and public sectors separately. Second, the authors divide the sample of workers into market newcomers and experienced workers. The authors analyze the impact of overeducations on each group separately. Third, the authors use the treatment effect of being overeducated on the individual’s monthly wage by the PSM. The advantage of the PSM method is that it eliminates the selection bias in the wage effect of overeducation, whereas the traditional regression-based techniques may result in this type of bias.

Is emotional intelligence the panacea for a better job performance? A study on low-skilled back office jobs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI), organizational affective commitment (AC), and performance at low-skilled back office positions.Design/methodology/approachIn all, 397 participants in low-skilled back office positions from a service company completed a questionnaire assessing EI, AC, and performance. The authors used multiple regression models for testing whether higher levels of EI and AC predicted better performance. Additionally, they tested to see whether EI and AC were positively related.FindingsThe results showed that workers in low-skilled back office positions with higher EI and AC had better performance. In this sense, intrapersonal skills and mood management were the dimensions of EI with the highest predictive power. Also, EI and AC were positively related, with intrapersonal skills and adaptability being the dimensions of EI most closely associated with AC. Finally, the predictive power on performance was increased when EI and AC were considered simultaneously.Originality/valueTraditionally, the involvement of EI and other personal dimensions in increasing organizational commitment and better work performance has been studied in high-skilled and executive positions, as well as in front office low-skilled positions. However, there is little empirical evidence regarding the simultaneous influence of EI and AC on performance in low-skilled back office positions. This gap prompted this research, which suggests that the investment of organizational resources is mandatory for improving EI and, hence, organizational commitment and work performance in these employees.

A Study on the Changes of Job Distribution and its Drivers: Korea 1993-2016

이 글은 1993-2016년의 기간을 대상으로 한국에서의 일자리 분포의 변화와 그 동인을 분석했다. 일자리 분포 변화를 설명하는 이론들 중에서 기술변화에 따른 직업구성의 변화로 설명하는 수요 중심 이론, 고령화와 고학력화 등 노동 공급 중심 이론, 그리고 노동시장 불평등의 일자리 분포에 미치는 효과에 관한 이론 등을 살펴보고, 우리나라 일자리 분포의 변동에 대해 이러한 가설들을 검증하는 방식으로 분석했다. 분석 결과, 노동 공급 요인보다 노동수요와 노동시장 불평등 요인 가설이 지지되었다. 일자리 분포의 양극화 경향은 1993-2008년 기간 중 나타났으나 2009-2016년간에는 완화되었다. 일자리 양극화 과정에서는 기술로 대체하기 어려운 대인서비스 부문의 저임금일자리 증가가 일자리 양극화에 기여했으며, 2009-2016년 기간 중에도 대인서비스 저임금일자리는 꾸준히 증가하였다. 고령화와 고학력화 요인은 이러한 일자리 분포 변화에 큰 영향을 미치지 못한 반면 노동시장에서의 불평등 심화는 서비스 부문의 저임금일자리를 확대하는 요인으로 작용한 것으로 나타났다.(JEL 분류: J0, J21)This paper analyzes the changes in the distribution of jobs in Korea and their drivers for the period 1993-2016. Among the theories explaining the change of job distribution, the demand-centered theory explaining the change of the occupational composition according to the technological change, the labor supply-oriented theory such as aging and higher education, and the theory of increasing the demand for low-skilled jobs. This paper analyzed the variations in the distribution of jobs in Korea by examining these hypotheses. As a result, demand factor hypothesis and labor market inequality hypothesis were supported rather than labor supply factor. The trend of polarization of job distribution occurred during the period 1993-2008, but it was eased in 2009-2016. The increase of low wage job in the interpersonal service sector, which is difficult to replace with technology contributes to job polarization. The number of low-paying interpersonal services has steadily increased during the period 2009-2016. The increase in labor supply, such as the increase in female labor supply, aging and higher education, did not affect the change of job distribution, while the increase in inequality contributed to the expansion of low-wage service jobs.(JEL Classification: J0, J21)

Do Village Girls Gain Empowering Capabilities through Schooling and What Functionings Do They Value

This paper explores the relationship between girls’ schooling and empowerment in western China in the first decade of the 21st century. This paper adopted a capability-empowerment framework based on Sen’s capability approach into which were integrated concepts by Bourdieu, Appadurai, Nussbaum, Kabeer, and Unterhalter, to help to understand the tenacity with which village girls pursued schooling. In interviews with a group of 23 girls and young women, several valued functionings of intrinsic capability sets in the freedom dimensions of well-being and agency and their association with rising levels of school attainment were found. The girls were found to be gaining empowering capabilities through schooling, but that these were not equally distributed, neatly slicing the group into two sharply defined groups with different life paths. One set dropped out in the middle school years with a smaller set of empowerment capabilities to work in low-skilled jobs in cities, which offered them new places to change. The other set remained in school longer to achieve a larger set of empowering functionings that they converted into more substantive freedoms in a variety of settings.

Labour-Intensive Jobs for Women and Development: Intra-household Welfare Effects and Its Transmission Channels

ABSTRACTWe examine the welfare impacts of poor women getting low-skilled jobs and find large positive income, consumption and poverty effects at household and individual levels. However, the women workers, their husbands and oldest daughters reduced their leisure, but the women to a much larger extent. Investigating the transmission mechanisms suggests that the impacts did not only go through income effects, but also through a bargaining effect. Getting the job improved the bargaining power of the wife through several mechanisms, which in turn added substantially to the positive impact on household consumption.

“I am from nowhere”: identity and self-perceived health status of skilled immigrants employed in low-skilled service sector jobs

PurposeThe foreign-born skilled immigrant population is growing rapidly in Canada but finding a job that utilizes immigrants’ skills, knowledge and experience is challenging for them. The purpose of this paper is to understand the self-perceived health and social status of skilled immigrants who were working in low-skilled jobs in the service sector in Ottawa, Canada.Design/methodology/approachIn this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews with 19 high-skilled immigrants working as taxi drivers and convenience store workers in the city of Ottawa, Canada were analysed using a grounded theory approach.FindingsFive major themes emerged from the data: high expectations but low achievements; credential devaluation, deskilling and wasted skills; discrimination and loss of identity; lifestyle change and poor health behaviour; and poor mental and physical health status.Social implicationsThe study demonstrates the knowledge between what skilled immigrants expect when they arrive in Canada and the reality of finding meaningful employment in a country where international credentials are less likely to be recognized. The study therefore contributes to immigration policy reform which would reduce barriers to meaningful employment among immigrants reducing the impacts on health resulting from employment in low-skilled jobs.Originality/valueThis study provides unique insights into the experience and perceptions of skilled immigrants working in low-skilled jobs. It also sheds light on the “healthy worker effect” hypothesis which is a highly discussed and debated issue in the occupational health literature.

Japan's ban on the production or import of organic pigments with >50 ppm PCBs

Under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II, the EU will phase out the use of palm oil for biodiesel feedstock. Environmental concerns are the main reasons for the EU to implement this initiative. This study analyzes the economic and environmental impact of EU import ban to Indonesia at provincial level, using 2 scenarios (a direct and direct-indirect import ban). The analysis is performed using a global-subnational Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) with environmental extensions. This study shows that a direct (combined) import ban of palm oil by the EU will reduce Indonesia's GDP by −0.2 % (−0.26 %) and employment by −0.12 % (−0.54 %) from baseline. At provincial level, Riau, North Sumatra, Lampung, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan experience the highest impact on their domestic product (more than −0.5 %). Under a direct import ban, job losses mostly happen in outside Java (96.26 %) and in the oilseeds sector (75.21 %). Low and middle skilled jobs decline more than high skilled jobs and count for 95 % of the total loss. This study also shows that a direct (combined) import ban reduces national GHG emissions by −0.19 % (−0.24 %) and total land use by −0.48 % (−0.6 %). Potential carbon sequestration can be 34.55 (42.27) million tons C equivalent to 149.74 (182.67) million tons CO2e under assumption a full rewilding from the reduction of land use in oilseed. Our study shows that an EU import ban on Indonesian palm oil has relatively small economic and environmental impacts at national and provincial level. Yet, this policy can create potential carbon sequestration that can absorb CO2 by vegetation and soil.

Do social enterprises attract workers who are more pro-socially motivated than their counterparts in for-profit organizations to perform low-skilled jobs?

The literature highlights that social enterprises (SEs) attract workers who are motivated to help others and to meet the social aims in which they believe. However, this assumption is challenged in the case of low-skilled jobs. Therefore, we have performed an empirical study in the quasi-market of service vouchers in Belgium to know if SEs attract workers who have a different motivational profile than their counterparts in for-profit organizations (FPOs) to perform low skilled jobs (N = 217). No significant differences were found. Next, we have compared FPOs with two types of social enterprises, Home Care Services Organizations (HCSOs) and Work Integration Social enterprises (WISEs), and again no significant differences were found for the whole sample. However, it seems that a selection effect exists in WISEs when the sample is reduced to people who were not previously unemployed. In others words, when WISEs deviate from their initial mission of ‘hiring the most vulnerable people on the labor market’, it is only to hire workers whose are highly motivated to achieve the organization’s mission and who fit with the values defended by the organization.

Broadband Internet and Income Inequality

A burgeoning literature has emphasized the effects of ICT on job polarization, but there is still a lack of evidence about its impact on income distribution. In this paper, we augment income distribution and labor market data with detailed broadband data from France to investigate the impact of broadband infrastructure on income inequality. Using a two-stage instrumental variable estimator with a logistic diffusion model at the first-stage, we find that income inequality falls with the diffusion of broadband infrastructure. More precisely, we find that a 10-percentage-point increase in broadband penetration lowers the Gini coefficient by 0.34 percentage point. Further empirical analyses suggest that this effect stems from a growth of low-skill service jobs. It is greater in less densely populated areas, and become significant as the penetration rate of broadband infrastructure rises above 28%.

Daily experiences of human (in-)securities: a case of migrant women in neighbourhood workshop in Bangkok, Thailand

A neighbourhood workshop in Thailand is an informal enterprise that usually offers low-skilled jobs. While most Thai people have left such jobs in search of better or more profitable work, migrant women from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar (also referred to as CLM countries) have since moved in to fill this vacuum. Using the concept of human security, this paper investigates how lack of state and social support generates vulnerabilities for migrant women and how they overcome these vulnerabilities in their daily lives. The findings of this paper are based on in-depth interviews of 13 women and four men from CLM countries in Bang Bon district and Klong Luang in Thailand. The interviews, conducted between January and September 2014, reveal that (1) irregular status of migration causes legal, economic, and environmental/health insecurities, (2) very limited protection is available to the migrants, with better-than-nothing protection coming their employers in an ad hoc and unguaranteed manner; yet their relationship is natured by exploitation, (3) their current sense of insecurity is partially offset by their context, i.e. the improved sense of security when compared with their prior individual experiences.