Low-quality Jobs Research Articles

Dynamic agglomeration effects of foreigners and natives – The role of experience in high-quality sectors, tasks and establishments

We analyze whether the benefits of work experience that was acquired in denser locations can be explained by the quality of jobs that can be found in agglomerations using administrative data on individual employment biographies of workers in Germany. We find that 79% of the premium for work experience gained in the densest regions can be ascribed to the sectors, tasks and establishments in which experience was acquired. Moreover, we find that foreign and native workers, on average, benefit to a similar extent from dynamic agglomeration effects. However, low-skilled foreign workers receive a lower return to experience gained in dense regions than observationally identical natives. This difference can be explained by the fact that the former gain work experience in lower-quality jobs.

Subcontracting Retreat: Early Estimates Using Administrative Data

Labor flexibility policies have increased temporary and subcontracted jobs. These types of employment are associated with lower quality jobs. In this paper, five-year economic census data and social security administrative data were collected to estimate, in non-census years, out-of-sample the percentage of subcontracted jobs. This evidence is relevant for assessing the impact of a legislation that banned subcontracting. Predictor variables such as time fixed effects, industry, and the rate of temporary workers were used. The results show a significant decrease in subcontracting, particularly in the secondary sector. These findings raise the need for future research on improvements in post-reform well-being in the labor market.

Assessment of Psychological Well Being and Quality Of life among Fishermen Community in a select Edrural Community Area, Chengalpattu District, Tamil Nadu

Background: Fishermen community is a group of people geographically located in the coastal areas and have theirown way of life and a distinctive culture, A variety of stressors that have an effect on physical and mental health areexperienced by commercial fishermen. However, there is limited research on the level of mental ill‐health amongfishers and In certain monsoon season mostly, fishermen cannot go to the sea due to bad weather condition,Because of this, fisherman typically have low-quality jobs that are dependent on the weather. When we look atthe association between various stressor categories and psychological distress, we see that fishers who perceive“traditional risks” and “modern uncertainties” as being more intensely are more likely to experience psychologicaldistress.Objectives\aim: To assess the psychological wellbeing among fishermen community, To assess the quality oflife among fishermen community, To find out the association between the psychological wellbeing and quality oflife among fishermen community with their selected demographic variables, To find out the correlation betweenpsychological wellbeing and quality of life among fishermen community.Materials and Methods: Quantitative descriptive research approach was used in this study.140 fishermenwere selected by using randomized sampling technique in kokilamedu, Chengalpattu district. A valid studyquestionnaire was used to collect data on socio-d emographic characteristics of fishermen, psychological wellbeingwas assessed by using genral health questionnaire and quality of life was assesses by using WHO QOL BREF scaleamong fishermen community.Results: The study shows that most of the fishermen were not affect with mental illness (98.6%) whereas remaining1.4%were affect with mental illness, majority of the fishermen were had average quality of life (94.3%) whereas5.7%of fisherman had good quality of life. Conclusion: Assessment on psychological wellbeing and quality oflife among fishermen shows that most of the fishermen were not affect with mental illness and the most of thefishermen had average quality of life.

Job quality and health conditions in the hotel industry: the case of housekeeping workers

ABSTRACT Following a qualitative research design, the article investigates the world of high-end hotel housekeeping in Milan (Italy). On the one hand, the job quality and its impact on the health of workers are analysed through semi-structured interviews with housekeepers and the oral reporting of trade union officials and union delegates. On the other hand, the changes that occurred in the sector following the Covid-19 pandemic are investigated through semi-structured interviews with key informants. Results show that hotel housekeeping is a low-quality job, which negatively affects the physical and mental health of workers. The pandemic brought to light several negative aspects of the industry, and housekeepers experienced a further deterioration of their working conditions. Measures that could be implemented by hotel groups and cleaning companies to improve the job quality of hotel housekeepers are suggested.

‘You’re only a care worker’. Exploring the status of adult social care work through the intersection of HRM innovation and job quality

This paper examines the intersection between job quality and innovation by exploring policy-led innovation aimed at delivering high-quality adult social care jobs that attract and retain much-needed skilled workers. Through qualitative enquiry, we examine workforce policy’s emphasis on training, development and career progression, key elements of job quality, to create higher-skilled, higher-status roles. Drawing on focus groups and interviews with care providers and care workers in Wales (UK), we question the likely success of policy-led innovation given first its ineffective delivery and second its failure to address broader aspects of job quality. Policy thus fails both to institutionalise skilled roles in care work and to raise the status of the care worker occupation. We contribute to emerging HRM and interdisciplinary theory and policy debates about the complex nature of innovation activities and their outcomes for job quality in care work within a sector typified by low-quality jobs. We illustrate the different ways in which job quality and innovation interact and how both can be constrained by one another as a function of environmental antecedents.

Valuation of Intellectual Capital: An Empirical Analysis of Human Capital in SMEs in Ecuador

Purpose: The objective of this study was to determine the valuation between intellectual capital and human capital in SMEs in Ecuador.
 
 Theoretical framework: Recent literature has reported interesting results on the application of organizational theoretical models and the knowledge society. However, there is still much to investigate and learn about organizational models and cultures in SMEs in Ecuador. (Saavedra & Saavedra, 2012)
 
 Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional design with a qualitative approach was implemented. An empirical study is carried out where the intellectual capital of the SMEs is evaluated through human capital as a dependent variable, and three variables as independent: Values ​​and attitudes, skills and abilities, through the application of a structured questionnaire through an interview with 378 businessmen. of the manufacturing, commerce and services sector of Ambato and Riobamba in Ecuador. It began with the descriptive analysis of the composition of the sample and the statistical results are evidenced through an analysis of means.
 
 Findings: The results showed that according to the composition of the sample by company size, microenterprises have between 1 and 9 employees, small companies manage between 10 and 49 workers and medium-sized companies between 50 and 199 employees, being representative, such as drivers. of the economy in Ecuador. One problem is the relevant presence of microenterprises, which generally maintain low-quality jobs and minimum wages.
 
 Research, Practical & Social implications: We suggest valuing human capital in SMEs . This research establishes a sense of belonging and commitment, which allows you to socialize with the client and develop your creativity. Likewise, the feeling of belonging establishes that the worker feels an integral part of the company, trusting the administrators, having freedom and autonomy to plan their work and avoiding high turnover, ensuring their permanence in the company. This value allows SMEs to develop and workers to increase their productivity by working in an appropriate environment.
 
 Originality/value: The results showed that the SMEs businessman considers it relevant to hire an experienced worker who maintains personal development by involving his family, the company carries out social, cultural activities and specialized training that contributes to improving the development of the company, allowing the hiring of personnel with a graduate degree or specialization. technical, offering training with specific skills for the development of the company.

An unstable equilibrium: the Italian immigrants' inclusion model facing the pandemic crisis test

The Italian immigrants' inclusion model has been described as a "low unemployment, bad jobs" equilibrium: immigrants have relatively high employment rates but tend to be segregated in low-quality jobs. However, as these jobs are also unstable, so is the equilibrium: during periods of recession, immigrants may face higher risks of labor-market exclusion. This paper investigates immigrant penalties in terms of employment probabilities, job loss, labor-market (re)entry, and job quality throughout the first year of COVID-19 crisis, by analyzing data from the 2019 and 2020 ISTAT Labor Force Survey. We find that the pandemic crisis accelerated an already ongoing erosion of immigrants' relative employment advantage, while at the same time increasing their segregation in low-quality jobs. The deterioration of immigrants' employment chances is chiefly driven by increased barriers in (re)entering the labor market which, especially for women, might be due to self-selection into inactivity. These findings suggest that the structural factors that have historically facilitated the activation of immigrant workers might have become factors of instability.

In-work poverty dynamics: trigger events and short-term trajectories in Argentina

In-work poverty (IWP) is gaining interest in the public agenda. This article is a first contribution to the analysis of IWP dynamics in Latin America, based on the study of the Argentine case. Using one-year interval panel data, the paper analyzes the trigger events that produce entries and exits from IWP, short-term poverty trajectories and the determinants associated to transient and persistent poverty. Drawing on a decomposition analysis of mutually exclusive events, the article shows that labor market events are the most relevant triggers for both exits and entries into IWP. Based on a multinomial logistic regression, the paper concludes that low education, the presence of children in the household, and having a low-quality job are the three main factors explaining persistent-poverty.

The value of formal host-country education for the labour market position of refugees: Evidence from Austria

Refugees hosted across the developed world often work in low-quality jobs, regardless of education previously attained in their country of origin. In this paper, I analyse the long-term value of formal host-country education for refugees using the example of forcefully displaced Bosnians who arrived in Austria during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. Deploying 22 years of Austrian microcensus data, I exploit the age at the time of forced migration as an instrument for the probability of receiving host-country instead of origin country education to recover local average treatment effects of education attained in Austria vis-A -vis Bosnia on labour market outcomes for refugees aged around schooling thresholds. These estimates show that attaining a formal degree in the host-country significantly reduces the probability of work below educational attainment and low-skill employment over the entire observation period. Income differences between Austrian and Bosnian degree holders are visible after more than two decades of stay in Austria. The discount on Bosnian education declines over time for men but not for women, suggesting that host-country degrees are particularly important to groups that faced cultural barriers to quality employment in their country of origin.

Job quality and automation: Do more automatable occupations have less job satisfaction and health?

Social scientists have made predictions about the automation of jobs, as well as the negative consequences that technology has on job quality, but not how these phenomena are connected. Are occupations with a higher susceptibility of automation associated with lower job quality? This study involves an empirical examination of automation-related measures from Frey and Osborne and applies them to job quality variables (job satisfaction and self-rated health) drawn from the US General Social Survey (GSS), Quality of Working Life and Work Orientation Panel from five different waves (2002 to 2018 every 4 years; N = 7240). The finding is that highly automatable occupations have lower level of job satisfaction and health and, hence, less job quality. This has implications on the future of work, which could be but not necessarily characterised by fewer bad quality jobs.

Can taxes help ensure a fair globalization?

This paper analyzes whether taxation can be successfully used to reduce the incidence of labor informality and achieve higher equality in a globalized economy. To this purpose, it develops a two-area model: a developed country and an emerging country. The two areas differ according to the size of the informal sector, which is characterized by a more flexible labor market and lower productivity. To illustrate the potential role of taxation in achieving a more fair income distribution, the paper introduces a trade shock to simulate the effects of trade liberalization. Trade expansion has often been blamed for leading to an expansion of the informal sector and a widening of wage income disparities. In this context, the paper analyzes whether a budget-neutral tax reform – switching the tax burden from payroll taxes paid by firms operating in the formal sector to a consumption tax – can mitigate possible adverse effects of trade liberalization and support labor formalization. The effects of taxation are seen in the context of the trade-offs between growth, labor formality and equity. The analysis suggests that small improvements in formalization, resulting from the tax reform, come at the cost of widening income inequality. To reduce the incidence of low-quality jobs, tax policy interventions should go hand in hand with more effective social protection systems and labor laws.

Behavior analysis of real wages in Mexico (1995-2018)

Objective: To determine through econometric analysis which variables —inflation, real exchange rate, unemployment, and consumption— have a major impact on workers' wages and, therefore, on production. Design/Methodology/Approach: We developed a multiple linear regression model for the behavior of macroeconomic variables in Mexico from 1995 to 2018, using the ordinary least squares method (OLS) and the Gretl statistical package. Results: The analysis of the model showed that inflation, exchange rate, and unemployment are highly significant, unlike consumption. For the model of real wages in Mexico, we obtained a 0.87 coefficient of determination —i.e., the variables included in the model account for 87% of the wages’ behavior. The relation of consumption, unemployment, and inflation to wages was as expected. Regarding the exchange rate, the result was the opposite of the expectations. The wage-unemployment elasticity had the greatest impact. Study Limitations/Implications: The database used was the main limitation because it relies on official sources, which lack data and show inconsistencies. Findings/Conclusions: The study helped to determine whether or not the proposed variables affected the national economic growth. Mexico is not a first-world country than can offer high salaries; therefore, the Mexican economy must continue to grow, before it reaches a higher per capita income. In this regard, it is essential to consider the extent to which the new government’s proposals will be able to face the reality: very few and very low-quality jobs are created, despite what the official figures say.

What do we know about the employment impacts of climate policies? A review of the ex post literature

AbstractConcern around the employment impacts of climate mitigation policies can be a contentious and politized issue, with potentially limiting implications for climate action. It persists despite a significant ex ante literature that suggests that aggregate effects will most likely be limited and net positive. This review analyses 60 papers assessing the employment impacts of climate policies ex post, in 20 countries and 2 country groups. Eight broad mitigation policies are covered: (1) emissions trading, (2) carbon taxes, (3) feed‐in tariffs, renewable energy (4) procurement and (5) deployment, (6) green economy/jobs, (7) environmental regulation, and (8) other policies and regulations. The analysis confirms that employment impacts tend to be modest and net positive or neutral, but reveals that distributional outcomes can be uneven, disadvantaging certain groups and at times reinforcing existing inequalities. Additionally, lower quality jobs or weak labor market regulations may decrease the attractiveness of jobs created or increase job transition costs. These findings provide some justification for increased focus on how climate policies can ensure a “just transition of the workforce and the creation of decent work and quality jobs” stipulated in the Paris Agreement, but also suggest that climate action should not be delayed for fear of widespread negative employment impacts. Ex post assessments offer an important lens into the determinants of climate policy employment outcomes and should be advanced and harnessed in support of accelerated and just action.This article is categorized under:Economics of Mitigation > Climate EconomicsSocial Justice and the Politics of Development > Climate and Development

Motivation to Improve Job Quality in Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises

Frontline workers represent some of the most critical employees in an organization yet often experience low job quality (e.g., low pay, low autonomy, low job security). Some organizational leaders choose to intentionally improve job quality while others do not. Research provides little evidence about what drives organizational leadership to increase job quality through high quality human resource management practices. This is especially true for research on small to medium-sized enterprises (SME). We use a qualitative approach based on interviews with senior leaders, HR leaders, frontline supervisors and frontline employees across 10 organizations to increase understanding of the motivational factors behind improved job quality for front-line workers in SMEs. Our findings indicate that factors beyond the external and organizational environment play a key role in job quality improvement decisions. Specifically, leaders are motivated to improve job quality based on their personal values (i.e., doing the “right thing” the “right way” and a belief in basic human rights), their understanding of employees’ lives, and the knowledge of “how” to improve job quality. Through this inquiry, we contribute to research on human resource management practices in SMEs, research on job quality for low-wage and frontline workers, and research on managerial HR philosophy.

Adolescent Delinquency and Adulthood Economic Disadvantage and Job Benefits: Results From a Longitudinal Sample of Males and Females.

There is a long history of examining the connection between crime and delinquency and economic well-being and employment quality. Despite this vast literature, there still remains unanswered questions surrounding these associations, including whether the timing of adolescent delinquency is associated with adulthood economic disadvantage and job quality, whether different types of adolescent delinquency maintain differential associations with measures of economic disadvantage and employment quality in adulthood, and whether any associations between delinquency and economics/employment are invariant between males and females. The current study sought to address these issues by exploring the associations between adolescent involvement in nonviolent and violent delinquency (measured at two times in adolescence) and adulthood economic disadvantage and job quality. To do so, data drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health were analyzed. The results revealed consistently null associations between the measures of adolescent delinquency and economic disadvantage and job quality for males. For females, however, the results were consistently significant, indicating that females who self-reported greater involvement in delinquency were more likely to be economically disadvantaged as adults and to have lower quality jobs. These results indicate that the associations between delinquency and economic disadvantage and job benefits differs between males and females, with females, in comparison with males, paying a significantly greater toll for engaging in acts of violent and nonviolent delinquency.

Determinants of youth unemployment rate: case of Slovakia

Research background: The employment rate of young individuals in the labour market has considerably decreased in developed countries recently. Due to lower labour capital, skills, and generic and job-specific work experience, youth consider finding suitable job challenging. If they fail to succeed in the labour market soon after graduation, it leads to long-term unemployment, unstable and low-quality jobs, and even social exclusion. Purpose of the article: This paper aims to analyse the unemployment rate of high school-graduated students and the factors impacting this unemployment rate, such as GDP per capita, total unemployment rate, apartment price per square meter and results from state exams. Identifying the determinants affecting youth unemployment is crucial for theoretical knowledge and for policymakers to ensure youth inclusion in the economic mainstream. As a result, society can reduce social and economic costs and avoid structural problems in the future. Methods: Data about 464 Slovak high schools from National Institute for Certified Educational. Data include the graduate unemployment rate for each high school in Slovakia. Furthermore, two logistic regression models have been developed to investigate the impact of selected factors on high school graduates? unemployment rate immediately after graduation and nine months after graduation. Findings & value added: This paper indicates the existence of statistical dependency between unemployment of high school graduates and overall unemployment rate in the region, GDP per capita in the region, quality of high school education and cost of living in the region immediately after graduation. Analysis of the period nine months after graduation has shown the important decline of education quality provided by high schools. To reduce youth unemployment, the state should focus primarily on improving overall unemployment itself by implementing a dual-learning system, simplifying business opportunities, making part-time work available, or introducing lifelong learning to help transform the economy into a knowledge base.

Quality of Employment Index for the tourism sector in developing countries

Although job quality has become an active field of study over the last two decades in developed countries, it still remains an under discussed concept in developing regions such as Latin America, where the incidence of work informality and low wages are particularly high. As quality of employment is a multidimensional concept and not homogeneously defined in the literature, we follow a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to build a Quality of Employment (QoE) Index for salary earners using household survey micro data of Uruguay from 2016-2019. Uruguay leads the Better Jobs Index launched by the Inter American Development Bank in 2017, which constitutes the only index with a macro-approach to measure quantity and quality employment conditions in the region. We consider several aspects of working conditions: employment, earnings, hours worked, occupational safety and social security coverage. We focus on the tourism sector, which presents low job quality characteristics at the same time it accounts for 7.2% of employment in Uruguay. Furthermore, we found a sex-based gap of employment quality against women in tourism, a difference that is not observed in the trade sector. QoE in tourism shows a greater dispersion in the distribution of employees, indicating the presence of more inequalities among these workers compared to those of trade. Other results show that job quality in tourism is lower for those unskilled, but that there are still many skilled workers facing low quality. Finally, if we consider the activities that conform tourism, workers do better in hotels and travel agencies rather than in restaurants and entertainment.

Gender Inequality and Job Satisfaction in Senegal: A Multiple Mediation Model

Women are often found to be in inferior jobs with lower wages and lower job quality, but to report higher job satisfaction. This gender-job satisfaction paradox is documented for high-income countries and is explained by gender inequality in job quality and expectations. In this paper we document this paradox for a developing country. We explore the complex relationship between gender, job quality and job satisfaction among agro-industry workers in Senegal, using primary data from a comprehensive worker survey. We use a multiple mediation model to disentangle direct and indirect pathways through which gender relates to job satisfaction. We find that women’s job satisfaction is higher, despite earning lower wages, receiving fewer nonwage benefits, being more in casual employment, and working fewer hours than men. Moreover, job satisfaction varies more strongly with gender than with worker education, wages or other job quality characteristics. We find that gender inequality in job quality mitigates the positive relationship between gender and job satisfaction, with wage and nonwage benefits as major mediating variables. Our findings imply opposing direct and indirect gender effects on job satisfaction, and bring some nuance in the debate on how reducing gender inequality in job quality may affect women’s job satisfaction.

Work in agro-industry and the social reproduction of labour in Mozambique: contradictions in the current accumulation system

ABSTRACT This article discusses the tensions between job creation and employment quality in the system of accumulation in Mozambique. Addressing job quality is central because Mozambique’s economic structure has mostly failed to generate stable work and pay and dignified working conditions. However, this is neglected in the mainstream view of labour markets, which is dominated by dualisms and limited by its blind spot regarding social reproduction. The authors follow a political economy approach informed by a social reproduction lens and draw on original primary evidence on agro-industries. They argue that low-quality jobs reflect the current mode of organisation of production, in which companies’ profitability depends on access to cheap and disposable labour and relies on workers’ ability to engage in multiple, interdependent paid and unpaid forms of work to sustain themselves. Unless the co-constitutive interrelations between production and reproduction are understood and addressed, the fragmentation of livelihoods will intensify the social system crisis.

Adaptation Trajectories of Dismissed Workers: A Critical Case Study of the Lithuanian Radio-Electronics Sector

This article explores why some dismissed workers adapt successfully to the changing structure of an economy, while others remain trapped in low-quality jobs and experience deskilling. The associated case study relies on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 50 former employees of four bankrupt radio-electronics factories in Lithuania. It is found that workers with ‘inherited’ skills that are deep and technical are able to enter high-quality jobs when new firms emerge, recombining the physical, financial and human assets of destitute factories for new productive uses. However, if such economic opportunities are scarce, workers with inherited broad skill sets are relatively more successful in transitioning to services from manufacturing. Further, in line with the literature of the sociology of work, women and older workers are found to face more acute challenges in adapting to the economic shock associated with dismissal.