Low-skilled Jobs Research Articles

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.

Employment polarization and over-education in Germany, Spain, Sweden and UK

The objective of this study is twofold. First, it investigates the association between technological change and over-education by analysing incidence of over-education and its change across skill-based and task-based job categories. Second, it compares countries with different employment change pattern—mainly upgrading and polarizing—to establish a link between employment polarization and over-education. Using data from European Labour Force Survey covering the period from 1999 to 2007, the paper analyses four countries of Europe—Germany, Spain, Sweden and UK. The results suggest higher incidence of over-education in polarized countries—Spain and UK as compared to countries with a somewhat upgrading pattern of employment change—Germany and Sweden. It also reveals that in Spain and UK, over-education is prominent and increasing over time in the low-skill jobs which are mostly non-routine manual in nature, while Germany and Sweden have more over-educated workers in middle skilled routine and high skilled analytical jobs. I find similar results in both descriptive and job fixed effects regressions.

Youth transitions, VET and the ‘making’ of class: changing theorisations for changing times?

The paper places youth transitions and vocational education and training (VET) within the global policy context in which economic competiveness is hegemonic. It compares research from the 1970s/80s, which explored young peoples’ lived experiences of VET and youth training schemes with contemporary work on similar themes. It argues that there are continuities and discontinuities in the conditions that young people face in their transitions to waged labour. Continuities can be seen in constructions of working class youth, but also by the way in which policy views the economy as characterised by upskilling. This is called into question when set against the existence of significant numbers of low-waged, low-skilled jobs in the English economy. There are also discontinuities that are the result of changes in class and employment structures. As a result, precariousness has become ubiquitous, with this existing in tandem with labour that is surplus to the requirements of capital. The paper reconsiders youth transitions and re-evaluates the notion of serendipity, suggesting these concepts need to be rethought and reworked in current conditions.

THE (UN)INTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF BILINGUAL EMPLOYMENT POLICIES

AbstractRecent immigration and migration patterns have altered the ethnoracial composition of Alameda County, California. Sociopolitical leaders have struggled to adjust to these changes. In an effort to facilitate limited English speakers’ access to critical municipal services, Oakland—the largest municipal in Alameda County—passed an Equal Access to Services Ordinance on May 8, 2001, which is a groundbreaking language access legislation for the City of Oakland’s public administration. Using data from the 2000 Census and the 2005–2011 American Community Survey, this study examines the impact of bilingual employment policies on the ethnoracial segmentation of Alameda County workers. Logistic regression reveals that bilingual employment policies have reorganized both targeted (i.e., public contact) and non-targeted occupations within the local government public administration sector. Specifically, Spanish/Chinese bilingual speakers made gains in the public administration sector (the intended effects), while Black monolingual English speakers experienced losses (the unintended effects). The representation of Black monolingual English speakers in public contact jobs within the local government public administration sector declined by as much as 18 percentage points after the implementation of the nation’s first municipal-level bilingual employment policy. The impact of bilingual employment policies on the East Bay’s Black/Brown relations and African American’s hold on low-skilled jobs in service industries is examined.

How is new technology changing job design?

The information technology revolution has had dramatic effects on jobs and the labor market. Many routine and manual tasks have been automated, replacing workers. By contrast, new technologies complement non-routine, cognitive, and social tasks, making work in such tasks more productive. These effects have polarized labor markets: While low-skill jobs have stagnated, there are fewer and lower paid jobs for middle-skill workers, and higher pay for high-skill workers, increasing wage inequality. Advances in artificial intelligence may be accelerating computers’ ability to perform cognitive tasks, heightening concerns about automation of even high-skill jobs.

Subsidising Mature Age Employment or Throwing Coins into a Wishing Well: A Quasi-Experimental Analysis

This paper evaluates the effect that subsidies to employment maintenance have on the probability of mature age workers staying in the firm. Implementing a quasi-experimental design provided by changes in Spanish labour market regulations, we are able to estimate that subsidy removal had a small though significant impact on the workers’ firm attachment rate. Our results show that a 1 pp increase in the worker’s cost translates into a 0.11 pp increase in the cumulative probability of the worker separating from the firm in the next five months. This effect was mainly driven by workers with relatively less seniority in the firm, who present lower dismissal costs, and by workers in low-skill jobs, for which the wage productivity gap seems to negatively evolve with age. In terms of cost-benefit analysis, we document that the previous higher rate of job maintenance was achieved at a disproportionate cost, and therefore the elimination of the subsidy resulted in Social Security efficiency gains.

What is the Impact of Broadband Bandwidth Variability on Quality of Life?: Lessons from Sweden

What is the Impact of Broadband Bandwidth Variability on Quality of Life?: Lessons from Sweden

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.

Safety at Work in Italy: A Comparison of Italians and Foreigners

Foreigners in Italy are mainly employed in low-skilled manual jobs where there is a greater exposure to the risk of injury. This study aims to analyze foreigners’ and Italians’ different probabilities of accidents in the workplace, and their perception of this risk, as well as the objective and subjective dimensions of injury at work.The data is taken from the ad hoc module on “Health and Safety at Work” in the Labour Force Survey (Istat)1 in the second quarter of 2013. This section also collected data on accidents at work and the perceived risk of accidents at work.Our findings identify critical issues for foreign workers from countries with high migration pressure compared to Italian born workers. Overall, foreign men, in particular, workers in manufacturing, especially plant operators and machine workers, have a significantly higher risk of injury than Italians. Among women, foreign cleaners are clearly disadvantaged compared to Italians. There is a discrepancy between the subjective and objective dimensions of the phenomenon, because, in the presence of a greater risk of injury for foreigners, perceived risk is not always significantly higher than Italians.

A comparison of financial literacy between native and immigrant school students

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the gap in Financial Literacy (FL) between native and immigrant 15-year-old school students using data from the 2012 PISA Financial Literacy Assessment. The size of the gap is about 0.15 standard deviations, going up to 0.3 for first-generation immigrants. This is partly because immigrants have poorer economic background, parents that work in lower-skilled jobs, do not speak the test language at home and are placed in later student cohorts. Controlling for this via OLS or matching reduces the unexplained gap, but it still remains significant and displays considerable country-level heterogeneity. It ceases to be significant when the Math score is partialled out.

Policy Roundup

Policy Roundup ShareShare onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail C&EN, 2016, 94 (49), p 21December 19, 2016Cite this:C&EN 94, 49, 21AbstractChina has unveiled a three-year plan to prevent accidents involving hazardous chemicals. Municipal and local governments will identify and audit all sites where hazardous chemicals are made or stored, and a new state council will compile a database of the hazardous chemicals in the country. Producers of ammonium nitrate and certain other chemicals will come under special scrutiny. Wearable devices, such as bracelets, that could measure alcohol levels are the subject of a new competition from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism. The devices must detect alcohol in blood or interstitial fluids rather than sweat. The winner would receive $200,000. Immigrants in the U.S. who are college-educated—including a half-million with science training—often work in low-skilled jobs or are underemployed, a report from three nonprofits says. If these 1.9 million people were employed at their education level they could make $40 billion more a year and pay $10View: PDF | Full Text HTML

Gender career divide and women's disadvantage in depressive symptoms and physical limitations in France

This study investigated the relationship between women's disadvantage in mental health and physical functioning and gender differences in career backgrounds. Sexual division of labor persists and key career characteristics are overrepresented in women: low-skilled first job, downward occupational trajectory, interruptions. These interrelated characteristics are usually linked to poor health. Their overrepresentation in women may be related to the female-male health gap; however, it may not if overrepresentation transposed into substantially weaker associations with poor health outcomes. To address this question, we used the French population survey “Health and Occupational Trajectories” (2006) and focused on 45–74 year-old individuals who ever worked (n=7537). Past career characteristics were qualified by retrospective information. Logistic regressions identified past characteristics related to current depressive symptoms and physical limitations. Non-linear decomposition showed whether these characteristics contributed to the gender health gap, through their different distribution and/or association with health. The overrepresentation of unskilled first jobs, current and past inactivity and unemployment in women contributed to their excess depressive symptoms. These contributions were only slightly reduced by the weaker mental health-relatedness of current inactivity in women and increased by the stronger relatedness of low-skilled and self-employed first jobs. Overrepresentation of current inactivity, past interruptions and downward trajectories also contributed positively to women's excess physical limitations. Gender-specific career backgrounds were significantly linked to women's disadvantage in mental health and physical functioning. We need to further explore whether equalization of opportunities, especially at the early stages and in terms of career continuity, could help to reduce women’s mental and physical health disadvantage.

Underemployment and mental health: comparing fixed-effects and random-effects regression approaches in an Australian working population cohort

ObjectivesUnderemployment occurs when workers are available for more hours of work than offered. It is a serious problem in many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, and particularly...

Do notional defined contribution schemes prolong working life? Evidence from the 1994 Swedish pension reform

Abstract This paper investigates whether the Notional Defined Contribution (NDC) scheme prolongs working life. The evidence from the 1994 Swedish pension reform shows a gender and socio-economic gradient in the labor supply responses to phasing in NDC. While the reform exerted a large and significant positive effect on the average retirement age among highly educated and skilled, it had little or negative effect on those with low level of human capital. And the overall effect is more profound among older men, compared to older women. These findings imply that the aggregate impact of NDC may only be positive if the average level of older workers’ education and skills is high, whereas it may be moderate (or even adverse) if the majority of the older workers are less educated and engage in low-skill jobs. This highlights the importance of incorporating the gender and socio-economic aspects into the evaluation of how a multi-pillar pension scheme, such as NDC, may increase the average working life expectancy.

Is Employment Polarization Creating More Over-Educated Workers? Evidence from Germany, Spain, Sweden and UK

This study explores if declining employment in routine middle-skilled jobs as a result of technological change is creating more over-educated workers in the low skilled non-routine manual jobs. Using data from European Labour Force Survey covering the period from 1999 to 2007, the paper analyses employment change and over-education in four countries of Europe – Germany, Spain, Sweden and UK. The results suggest higher incidence of over-education in polarized countries – Spain and UK as compared to countries with employment upgrading – Germany and Sweden. It also reveals that in Spain and UK, over-education is prominent and increasing over time in the low paid jobs which are mostly non-routine manual in nature, while Germany and Sweden have more over-educated workers in middle skilled routine and high skilled analytical jobs. I find similar results in both descriptive and job fixed effects regressions.

Analyzing In-Migrants and Out-Migrants in Urban China

Massive urbanization is producing large-scale urban migration in China. Based on the database of the Population Information System of the Health and Family Planning Commission, the spatial characteristics and demographic structural characteristics of migrants have been analyzed at the inter-provincial, intra- provincial and city scales, using Wuhan, China as a case study. A panoramic image of the overall migration in this area has been produced, illustrating that in-migration continues to have a “squeezing” effect on low-skilled jobs with low barriers to entry. There are clear differences between in-migrants and out-migrants; the great majority of in-migrants are fertile women and floating children, and out-migrants have left their children. Moreover, basic public services are insufficient for in-migrants. This paper concludes by presenting a selection of policies to help manage migrants.

Közfoglalkoztatás a mezőgazdaságban

A magyar foglalkoztatáspolitika évtized eleji átalakítása, a workfare jelleg erősítése alapjaiban formálta át a közfoglalkoztatási rendszert. A közmunkából, amely eredetileg csupán egy volt az aktív foglalkoztatáspolitikai eszközökből, s amely átmeneti vagy részmunkaidős elhelyezkedési lehetőséget kínált a tartós munkanélkülieknek, így vált egy univerzális, majd minden álláskereső számára elérhető, majdhogynem garantált elhelyezkedési lehetőséggé.A közfoglalkoztatás új rendszerében kiemelt szerep jutott az ország legkedvezőtlenebb helyzetű térségeiben meghirdetett mezőgazdasági közfoglalkoztatási programoknak, amelyek a jó minőségű élelmiszerrel való ellátást biztosítják. A közfoglalkoztatás fizikai termékek előállításával való összekapcsolása nemzetközi szinten ritka, de nem példa nélküli. Argentínában és Indiában, ahol a közfoglalkoztatási programok keretén belül mezőgazdasági tevékenységek is megjelentek, hivatalosan nem kerülnek piaci forgalomba a megtermelt mezőgazdasági termékek, hiszen maguk a közmunkások, illetve a rászorulók étkeztetésére használják azokat.A hazai gyakorlat e tekintetben legalábbis kétarcú, hiszen egyrészt határozott elvárás a piaczavarás elkerülése, ugyanakkor cél a fejlesztési projektek saját lábra állása, önfenntartóvá válása, ami végső soron a valódi piacra való kilépést jelenti. A politikai célok érthetőek, ugyanakkor nem jött létre egyetértés a tekintetben, hogy miként lehetne ezt elérni.A magyar mezőgazdasági közfoglalkoztatási programok népszerűvé váltak, az érintettek számára ugyanis biztos, különösebb képzettséget nem igénylő munkalehetőséget teremtenek, még ha a piaci és a hivatalos minimálbérnél is alacsonyabb fizetést nyújtanak.A 2012–2013. évekre vonatkozó teljes körű adatok alapján látható, hogy a hátrányos helyzetű térségekben meghirdetett mezőgazdasági közfoglalkoztatási programokba leginkább a hátrányos munkaerő-piaci helyzetűek – azaz nők, pályakezdő fiatalok, alacsonyan képzettek– kerülnek be. A mezőgazdasági közfoglalkoztatási programok foglalkoztatási reintegrációs hatása csekélynek mondható, az érintettek alig 9,9 százaléka tudott a munkaerőpiacon elhelyezkedni, legnagyobb valószínűséggel ismét közfoglalkoztatottakká váltak.

Multiplex Migration and Aspects of Precarization: Swedish Retirement Migrants to Spain and their Service Providers

Exploring the relations between different migrants who meet in Spain, this article discusses issues of mobility, the globalization of care and service work, and precarization of labor and livelihoods, of crucial importance to welfare states and the future of work and retirement conditions in Europe. A mélange of migratory processes are scrutinized along a Swedish-Spanish North-South axis. It analyzes longstanding conditions on the Spanish labor market combined with neoliberal de- and reregulation of work and welfare with a bearing on spatial and social inequalities across the European Union. From a relational approach, the authors examine conditions of Swedish retirement migrants in Spain and of the workers and entrepreneurs who provide care and services for them. Social networks, intermediaries and subcontractors are crucial to organization of migration as well as work and services. Some of these workers, especially third country migrants, occupy precarious, and sometimes informalized, low skilled jobs in an ethnically segmented and gendered labor market.