Low-skilled Jobs Research Articles

Depression and Engagement in a Brexit Context: The Role of Job Type and UK Citizenship Status

This study explores the interplay between UK citizenship status, the nature of jobs for employees in the UK, and the potential role that these factors play in influencing job related depressed well-being states and work engagement in the context of a looming Brexit (where the UK proposed to leave the EU). In two waves of data collection, across six months, we survey EU and UK citizens working in the UK and test a moderated mediation model. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory as an explanatory framework, we demonstrate that, compared to employees with UK citizenship status, EU migrants based in the UK without citizenship show higher levels of depression and that this is followed by lower levels of work engagement. Crucially, we also show an indirect relationship between being in a more vulnerable (low skilled) job and lowered work engagement mediated through states of depression, which is moderated by UK citizenship status (i.e. only significant for EU citizens who do not have citizenship). Finally, we also show that EU migrants without UK citizenship exhibit greater reductions in work engagement following an increase in depression over time compared to employees who do have the security of UK citizenship status.

Antecedents and Consequences of Low-Status Expatriates’ Adjustment Experience

How do low-status expatriates adjust to working and living overseas? What factors are essential to their task performance, psychological well-being, intention to leave and life satisfaction in the host country? The extant expatriate literature disproportionately focuses on high-skilled, high-status professionals and managers who are either company-assigned or self-initiated to relocate and work in a new country. This bias overlooks the fact that the vast majority of international employees relocated in various countries actually fall into the category of low-status who take up low-skill and low-paid jobs. Some of them even live and work in precarious conditions. Yet, they form a significant part of the workforce in several developing and developed countries. Based on 45 semi-structured interviews with low-status expatriates, we derive a model that explains the relevant antecedents and consequences of low-status expatriates’ adjustment experience. To this end, we analyzed our data by drawing on the extant perspectives on expatriate adjustment and immigrant adaptation.

Life cycle sustainability assessment of a novel slaughter concept

This article presents a Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of an innovative slaughter concept, i.e., a semi-automated version of the Meat Factory Cell (MFC). The system is characterised by division of labour with close human-robot interaction, as compared to a Conventional Slaughter and Cutting Process (CSCP). A case study is built which considers the conditions at a Norwegian slaughter facility. Several assumptions are made for the MFC as the concept is still in the development phase. A sensitivity analysis has been employed to highlight the key factors leading to changes in the environmental, economic and social aspects of the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment framework.The results show that MFC is a viable alternative to CSCP within a life cycle sustainability assessment, even though there is a trade-off between the three dimensions of sustainability and variability among the considered impact categories. At the slaughterhouse, the climate change performance for the CSCP is 387 kg CO2eq/ton carcass. For the MFC concept, results showed no substantial changes in the environmental performance. For the Life Cycle Costing, the difference between the two concepts arises primarily from lower energy costs due to a 50% reduction in the cost of chilling. From a cost perspective, the innovative concept is relatively more profitable for small and medium-size abattoirs than for very large slaughterhouses. The social LCA indicates that a more efficient abattoir system using MFC might lead to the loss of low-skilled jobs but creates opportunities for more qualified personnel.

Times of Work and Social Life: Bangladeshi Migrants in Northeast Italy and London

Taking inspiration from renewed scholarly interest in the role of time in migration, we compare the temporalities of work and social life among male Bangladeshi-origin migrants in northeast Italy and London. We draw conceptually on time geography and rhythmanalysis, and empirically on interviews with 40 Bangladeshi migrant men, to demonstrate the stark contrasts in migrants’ daily lives in the two settings and the impacts of moving from northeast Italy to London. More broadly, this article contributes to debates on the temporalities and rhythms of migrants’ everyday lives via comparative analysis. While in both settings capitalism inexorably shaped class dynamics through its command over flexible labor, there were also marked differences in the routinization of migrants’ work and social and family life. In northeast Italy’s small industrial towns, stable shift-based working rhythms created regular free time for family and associative life. In London, where participants’ employment was limited to low-skill jobs with unsocial hours, family and social life was disrupted, with consequential effects on social integration. The findings presented here highlight the under-appreciated role of onward migration in global migration dynamics and underscore the importance of time, in particular the way in which the diverse temporalities of migrants’ daily lives are shaped by the mode of regulation of the labor market and the spatial setting where migrants’ working and social lives unfold.

Tourism jobs in demand: Where the best contracts and high salaries go at online offers

It has been suggested that the tourism sector is one in which temporary and low-skilled jobs abound. The aim of this study is to analyze the educational and experience requirements associated with job offers in tourism and their corresponding contracts and salaries. Nine thousand job advertisements were analyzed from one of the biggest employment websites in Spain. Online job offers allow a profile of employers' preferences to be drawn up in terms of occupations, educational levels and required experience, as well as the terms of contracts and salaries offered. Internal heterogeneity in the tourism sector arising from the coexistence of different functions and skills is highlighted. Our analysis shows that the occupation crucially conditions salary differences and contract types in tourism job offers.

“Yo lo que Quiero es Trabajar”. Hombres que Trabajan en el Sector del Cuidado Social

En este artículo exploramos las experiencias y percepciones de los hombres en trabajos de cuidado en España para comprender las razones por las que se introdujeron en este sector laboral, porqué continúan, cómo se perciben y en qué medida el género importa en sus experiencias laborales. Utilizamos datos de la investigación cualitativa que estamos realizando en Cataluña (España) sobre hombres cuidadores. Este texto se basa en 31 entrevistas semiestructuradas a trabajadores del sector del cuidado social. Nuestros resultados muestran que la crisis económica ha conducido a que hombres autóctonos entren a trabajar en un sector poco cualificado como es el de los cuidados, modificando así el proceso de estratificación basado en género, clase y migración. Descubrimos que la "escalera de cristal" tiene un efecto muy limitado en el trabajo de cuidado ya que las ventajas que disfrutan los hombres solo se relacionan con la facilidad con la que acceden a dichos trabajos. Finalmente, encontramos que los hombres cuidadores negocian su masculinidad a través de la tensión entre las normas culturales y de clase que les obligan a tener un trabajo y las características subvaloradas o feminizadas de su trabajo.

Job Polarisation in India: Structural Causes and Policy Implications

Automation impacts wage levels at the micro-level and the structure of employment at the macro-level. Job polarisation is defined as the automation of ‘middle-skilled’ jobs that require routine cognitive and manual applications, whilst high- and low-skilled occupations are preserved. This paper examines the nature of job polarisation in India during the period 1983–2012 when Indian manufacturing sector was being automated. The research uses disaggregated data from National Sample Survey Office and examines the impact of supply-side factors such as nature of employment and presence of educated labour force. The study has three observations. First, the increased demand for high-skilled workers in the formal manufacturing sector is due to skill bias of technology and conforms to theoretical expectation. Second, the transition of agricultural labourers to low-skilled manufacturing sectors such as construction and textiles signals distress in traditional manufacturing sector to provide employment to these groups. Third, the over-supply of secondary and tertiary educated labour force has resulted in the squeezing out of middle-skilled workers from middle-skilled jobs to relatively low-skilled manufacturing and service occupations. This explains the persistence of routine occupations even after automation. The study concludes that in the Indian manufacturing sector, increased demand for high- and low-skilled jobs has coexisted with the middle-skilled jobs due to supply-side factors.

Job Polarisation in India: Structural Causes and Policy Implications

Automation impacts wage levels at the micro-level and the structure of employment at the macro-level. Job polarisation is defined as the automation of ‘middle-skilled’ jobs that require routine cognitive and manual applications, whilst high- and low-skilled occupations are preserved. This paper examines the nature of job polarisation in India during the period 1983–2012 when Indian manufacturing sector was being automated. The research uses disaggregated data from National Sample Survey Office and examines the impact of supply-side factors such as nature of employment and presence of educated labour force. The study has three observations. First, the increased demand for high-skilled workers in the formal manufacturing sector is due to skill bias of technology and conforms to theoretical expectation. Second, the transition of agricultural labourers to low-skilled manufacturing sectors such as construction and textiles signals distress in traditional manufacturing sector to provide employment to these groups. Third, the over-supply of secondary and tertiary educated labour force has resulted in the squeezing out of middle-skilled workers from middle-skilled jobs to relatively low-skilled manufacturing and service occupations. This explains the persistence of routine occupations even after automation. The study concludes that in the Indian manufacturing sector, increased demand for high- and low-skilled jobs has coexisted with the middle-skilled jobs due to supply-side factors.

Racial Pay Parity in the Public Sector: The Overlooked Role of Employee Mobilization

Rising economic inequality has aggravated long-standing labor market disparities, with one exception: government employment. This article considers the puzzle of black-white wage parity in the American public sector. African Americans are more likely to work in the public than in the private sector, and their wages are higher there. The article builds on prior work emphasizing institutional factors conditioning this outcome to argue that employee mobilization can motor it. As public sector unions gained political influence postwar, their large constituencies of black, blue-collar workers, drawing on both militant and nonviolent tactics of the urbanizing civil rights movement, advocated for improved working conditions. Archival sources confirm this pattern at the federal level. The employment and activism of African Americans in low-skilled federal jobs pivoted union attention to blue-collar issues and directly contributed to the enactment of a transparent, universal wage schedule for the blue-collar federal workforce (the Federal Wage System). The result was greater pay parity for African Americans, as well as for other disadvantaged groups.

Challenge-seeking and the gender wage gap: A lab-in-the-field experiment with cleaning personnel

The present research examines gender differences in challenge-seeking behavior in different work environments. We address the bottom end of the job spectrum with typical low-skill entry-level jobs, where the willingness to embrace new challenges is an important driver for professional advancement. The experimental results are based on a lab-in-the-field experiment with workers from a Swiss commercial cleaning company. Women are 43 percentage points less likely than men to accept a high-paying challenge in the control treatment with two levels of difficulty. In a slightly re-framed decision environment that offers a third, even more extreme, challenge to choose, female challenge-seeking increases by nearly 80%, while men’s challenge-seeking remains at very high levels. This significantly reduces the gender wage gap in our setting. We discuss anchoring and the compromise effect as potential reasons for our result. This study contributes to the present debate on affirmative action, and suggests that minimally invasive interventions, like the presentation of challenges, may be a fruitful option to promote the success of women in the workplace.

0367 Social Determinants of Black-White Disparities in the Work-Sleep Relationship by Occupational Class: A Sequential Mixed Methods Approach

Abstract Introduction Although Black adults disproportionately work in lower-wage, lower-skilled jobs and experience short sleep (<7 hours), which has been shown to vary by employment industry and occupation, there is scant literature regarding the influence of the work-sleep relationship on racial/ethnic sleep disparities. Our prior quantitative research based on nationally-representative data revealed a novel finding that the prevalence of short sleep was generally highest at professional occupational classes among Black adults but was the least prevalent among their White counterparts. Methods To identify reasons for short sleep generally increasing with increasing professional occupations among blacks but decreasing among whites, we conducted a qualitative study using a sequential mixed methods design among Black and White workers across a range of industries and occupations. Occupations were classified as “professional” (e.g., doctors; lawyers) or “non-professional” (e.g., retail; food service). Race-matched trained facilitators conducted 36 focus groups that were homogenous in terms of race-sex/gender-occupational class and 63 one-on-one interviews (N=334 overall participants) using semi-structured interview guides. NVivo software was used to identify themes/patterns. Results Participants were a mean age of 41 ± 11 years, 42% were men, 58% had an annual income of ≥$50,000, and 57% were professionals. Black professionals overwhelmingly described less informational and emotional support as well as needing to “work twice as hard to get half as far” (i.e., John Henryism) compared to coworkers as potential explanations for work-sleep disparities. Both Black and White professionals identified longstanding social structures, interpersonal discrimination, income disparities, and familial or self-imposed pressures to succeed. White professional women frequently reported experiences with gender discrimination, which - they reported - may intersect with and amplify the effects of racial discrimination among Black women. Regardless of occupational class, Black men additionally described unique stressors (e.g., political climate; finances; police). White men frequently avoided discussing disparities, and the existence of disparities was often denied/questioned by non-professionals across race and sex/gender. Conclusion Our findings inform future research and interventions designed to illuminate and/or address sleep disparities emanating from the workplace. Support This work was funded by the Intramural Program at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Z1AES103325-01).

Migration and Forsaken Schooling in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan

Abstract Large international earnings differentials negatively impact human capital investments in migrant-origin countries. We find that three Central Asian migrant-sending countries—the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan—are facing a forsaken schooling phenomenon. Once completing their compulsory schooling, young people in these countries are forsaking additional schooling because of opportunities to migrate to high-paying low-skilled jobs in the Russian Federation. The countries face a loss in human capital formation.

‘THE ONLY PLACE TO DO THIS IS IN TOWN’: EXPERIENCES OF RURAL–URBAN MIGRATION IN NORTHERN KARAMOJA, UGANDA

Abstract Towns in northern Karamoja, Uganda, are growing due to an expanding commercial sector, shifts in livestock-based rural livelihoods, and the economic and social appeal of urban life. This article presents qualitative data from 83 individual migrants to Abim, Kaabong and Kotido, the three largest towns in northern Karamoja. The research aimed to better understand the factors behind migration, the livelihood strategies pursued by those moving to towns and the opportunities and challenges associated with urban life. The data show that the majority of respondents in urban centres retained links to their rural communities: these connections allowed migrants to access key assets such as land, social networks and food, and allowed rural residents to receive remittances and other forms of support. Those who were not able to maintain ties to their rural homes or families were frequently the most vulnerable; most were widowed or abandoned women. Reasons for migration included household-level shocks, such as the loss of livestock or the death of a family member, as well as food insecurity or ‘hunger’. Towns are attractive destinations because of their economic opportunities and potential for a better life. However, many respondents struggled with the cost of living in towns and worked multiple ad hoc and low-skilled jobs in order to get by. While rural linkages were important for populations in both areas, most respondents did not envision returning to their rural areas. Urban planning and services have not kept pace with migratory patterns.

Reducing information asymmetry before marriage: Evidence from South Korea

This study examines whether information asymmetry during the matchmaking period affects women’s choice of spouse. The 2010 amendment of the Marriage Brokers Business Management Act requiring international marriage brokers in South Korea to provide more information about their South Korean male clients to prospective foreign brides in brokered marriages provided an opportunity to probe this question. Using the National Survey of Multicultural Families 2015, we employed the difference-in-differences method. Following the 2010 amendment, foreign women in brokered marriages were more likely to marry a more-educated Korean man and were less likely to work in low-skilled jobs after marriage.

Cost of poor health to the labour market returns to education in Australia: another pathway for socio-economic inequality.

While several studies have estimated returns to education in Australia, there is limited evidence regarding the influence of health on the returns. This paper identifies how health affects returns to education in the labour market using the Heckman selection bias-corrected model. We measured health status using a self-rated health item with five response categories 'poor, fair, good, very good, and excellent'. The findings show that poor health or being unhealthy (defined as 'poor' or 'fair') interacts with education, such that the benefits of education (i.e. higher hourly wage rate) are curtailed in those with health problems; the adverse effect is stronger for those in lower skilled jobs. The estimated returns to an additional year of schooling on average over 2001-2017 is 7.43% and 6.88% for the healthy and unhealthy groups, respectively. Thus, the return for workers with poor health is 7.4% lower than the return for healthier workers (for each additional year of schooling). This gap in the returns is equivalent to a productivity loss of about $19-25 billion per year. The lower returns to education for workers with poor health likely results fromlowerproductivity while at work rather than loss of working daysas the estimate is based on an hourly wage rate (rather than days or hours absent from work). These lower returns may also be explained by unhealthy workers accepting lower paid jobs given the same levels of experience, skills and education that healthier counterparts have. The cost of poor health to labour market returns is further amplified in low-skilled occupations, a process which is likely to exacerbate socio-economic inequalities and undercut social mobility.

Immigrants’ educational credentials leading to employment outcomes: The role played by language skills

Transferability of human capital is a key issue in the analysis of immigrants’ integration in the destination country, according to both empirical and theoretical literature. In addition to the problem of recognition of immigrants’ educational credentials and their lack of social networks, language is highlighted in the literature as a crucial factor regarding human capital transfer. This paper considers the role played by Spanish language skills in the integration of migrants into the labour market in Spain. It takes advantage of the fact that about half of the immigrant population have Spanish as their native language, and of the diversity levels of fluency in Spanish among the remaining immigrants. Using the Labour Force Survey special module on the labour market situation of immigrants (INE 2015), the research has two purposes: first, to measure the direct effect of language skills on employment outcomes; and second, to analyze the complementary vs. substitution hypotheses regarding the interaction between Spanish language skills and educational credentials as determining factors for employment. The results confirm that skill levels in Spanish have a significant role regarding access to employment. Regarding the complementary vs. substitution hypotheses, interesting gender differences appear that confirm the striking contrasts in the Spanish labour market for female and male immigrants. For men, their level of Spanish acts as a complement to their educational qualifications in helping them to obtain employment, but this is not the case for women. However, female immigrant workers seem to obtain higher employment returns on their educational qualifications than men when it comes to avoiding very low-skilled jobs.

Шок пандемии и посткризисный мир

Coronavirus pandemia of 2020 turned to be a strong external shock for the modern global financial and economic systems. It triggered a virtual cliff of many world markets, especially crude oil production and consumption. COVID‑19 also revealed serious shortcomings of public health systems and week governments’ preparedness to virus epidemics, as well as different degrees of the ability to overcome resulting crisis. Evidently, the world will eventually recover. However, the process will be slow and complicated. Deep structural and institutional changes will be needed. Coronacrisis accelerated many emerging trends and developments in technologies, labor markets, and corporate governance. Social isolation gave a powerful boost to IT, telecommunication, digital platforms, and gig economy. Remote work model demonstrated its efficiency for high skill professionals in financial, legal services, consulting and education. At the same time, low skilled jobs with limited remote access possibilities are likely to face growing troubles and declining incomes. This will further aggravate problems of inequality and lack of social cohesion. As for the international scene, there are already clear evidences of intensifying “bi-polar disorder” between USA and China. This is a highly dangerous trend that will seriously hamper the global post-crisis revitalization. As for the European Union, the coronavirus crisis highlighted the fragility of its currently existing architecture, namely the fundamental asymmetry between Europeanization of values and nationalization of interests. Attempts to convert values into a sort of formal regulations like Schengen or Maastricht naturally meet the challenge from deeply enrooted human identities. The EU needs either to make a decisive move towards unified budget or to rollback to more loose association. In the nearest future we will see what type of adjustment is politically feasible. During and after Covid‑19 crisis an underlying trend emerged for re-focusing business activities and consumer demand towards intangible, non-material production and consumption. The resources for this type of post-crisis development are intellectual and creative, as well as alternative non-carbon, thus they are basically renewable and unlimited. Summing up, the authors suggest that societal and economic growth trajectories will be shifting towards the paradigm of responsible development.

Socio-Economic Status Of Migrant Women Labour Force In Goa: A Literature Based Analysis

Goa is one of the most economically prosperous states of India. Many migrants flow in to Goa from various parts of India to seek employment. Since rural areas people faced the problem of lack better employment opportunities in the villages, they migrate to urban areas where they expect to get productive employment. Though male migrants outnumber females the role played by women migrants cannot be overlooked. Women have migrated to Goa either with their spouses, or independently and they have taken up jobs on various levels of hierarchy from unskilled, casual work to highly paid and highly skilled jobs. The study focuses primarily on low skilled and unskilled jobs taken up by the female migrant workers in different sectors of economy in Goa. It tries to identify the socio-economic status of the migrant women labour-force. It is seen that the female migrants have migrated as associational migrants along with their spouses. They take up jobs as domestic helps, labourers in construction industry and helpers in factories and shops. They earn a low income but nevertheless contribute equally in household expenses and savings. Their social status gets enhanced as they are economically independent which also results in an enhanced autonomy in the family. They are able to make household decisions. They face a major challenge as they have to keep a balance between their household responsibilities and also focus on their jobs. With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic situation and the sudden lockdown announced in the country, the status of their employment has come to a standstill. Majority of the migrant women have lost their jobs and their income has stopped. After the commencement of special trains many migrated back to their native place.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ СУЧАСНОЇ КИТАЙСЬКОЇ МОДЕЛІ РИНКУ ПРАЦІ ТА ЙОГО ІНФРАСТРУКТУРИ

The article considers the theoretical aspects of labor market formation in the People’s Republic of China. The role of the labor market in China’s economic growth is revealed. The peculiarities of the theoretical model of the Chinese labor market are established. It was found that the key characteristics of the Chinese labor market model are: a segmented labor market, covering three sectors – public, private and agricultural enterprises, and a unique system of household registration in China (hukou). The key problems of the Chinese labor market have been formed, each of which has its own reasons for the development of its institutional support. The necessity of reforming the state regulation of the Chinese labor market has been proved. The stages of development of the national employment policy in China for the period from 2002 to 2020 are systematized. The main political priorities for the development of employment policy in China are outlined, with the help of which the situation has significantly improved. The infrastructural support of China’s active national employment policy (AEP) has been studied. It is substantiated that the main positive effects characteristic of the modern Chinese labor market model are: stabilization of the high level of employment; gradual decline in unemployment; stable increase in the average wage in society; stabilization of mobility of rural labor in urban areas; improving the infrastructure of the labor market; increasing the role of human capital; changing the nature of work; strengthening the impact of technology on the destruction of low-skilled jobs and the creation of new decent jobs; increase productivity. At the same time, the negative effects characteristic of this labor market include: inconsistency of the supply of skilled labor and its demand; exacerbation of problems associated with the growth of informal employment; continued decline in the urban population; exacerbation of the problem of population aging. Emphasis is placed on the expediency of adopting the Chinese experience in building a new model of the national labor market and its infrastructure.

Insourcing, outsourcing or backsourcing? The case of the Brussels Regional administration

Since the 1980s, there has been a trend for businesses and public administrations to focus on their core activities, outsourcing tasks such as IT, security, catering and cleaning services. However, in recent years, many organisations have been reversing the trend by insourcing, or “backsourcing”, some of these activities. The aim of this article is to study the extent to which activities have been outsourced in the Brussels regional administrations, its impact on workers and organisations involved, and the attitudes of stakeholders towards a possible re-internalisation of low-skilled jobs. Based on a multidisciplinary BSI project for Talent.Brussels, our findings show that decisions about outsourcing and insourcing are complex and multidimensional, and that they should not be based solely on monetary cost considerations.