Official Labour Market Research Articles

Inclusion-light or innovation of inclusion: modes of innovation and exnovation for the German vocational rehabilitation and participation system.

This paper examines the German system of vocational rehabilitation and participation from a system- and innovation-theoretical perspective. The German system of vocational rehabilitation and participation, with its established special systems for participation in the labor market, is facing a - long overdue - reorientation. The article presents central instruments of the vocational rehabilitation system based on legal foundations, official labor market statistics, and current research findings. The authors compare the legal requirements for an inclusive work environment with the actual employment situation of people with disabilities and highlight a central dilemma of inclusion. Two modes of innovation and exnovation in the vocational rehabilitation system are proposed and critically discussed to resolve the dilemma.

Construction of Il/Legitimate Migrant Labor: Non-Nationals in Domestic Service and Gardening in Interwar Austria

Abstract Like other European countries, Austria introduced employment restrictions for foreigners after World War I. Access to the labor market was to be reserved primarily for Austrian citizens. These new regulations related exclusively to dependent employees and allowed exceptions in view of family reunification, among other things. They were based on official labor market categories and reflected widely accepted imaginations of gender-specific abilities and responsibilities. However, many foreigners earned their living in a household context and their activities hardly matched the official categories of work and family. Since decision-making on employment permits required unambiguous categorization, this situation posed a dilemma for the authorities in charge. Given the vast variety of work arrangements and relations, they struggled to clearly draw the line between “employed” and “not employed” workers. Using the example of domestic help and Bulgarian gardeners, this article investigates administrative authorities' attempts to make such distinctions and it examines migrants' efforts to occupy labor market niches. While migrants un/intentionally circumvented regulations and made their living in Austria, the ongoing disputes paradoxically contributed to an enforcement of restrictions. Administrative authorities gradually increased their endeavor to locate unauthorized foreign workers even within households and they sharpened the criteria for their categorization.

Deshadowing of the labor market as a component for provision of state social security

Methods. During the research, a set of general scientific and specific methods of cognition were used, in particular: methods of logical generalization and scientific abstraction – to clarify the conceptual apparatus of the research; systematic analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction – to identify the specifics of the influence of labor market trends on the state of shadowization of the economy of Ukraine, to identify threats to national security, as well as to systematize the directions of shadowization of the labor market in Ukraine. Results. The main causes of the shadow labor market in Ukraine are analyzed. The features of informal employment are outlined and the threats to the economic security of the country, which are caused by the development and increase in the volume of informal employment, are determined. The main vectors of actions in the policy of deshadowing of the labor market are highlighted. It is well-founded that the state should facilitate the legalization of informal employment in the country, encourage formal employment, regulate the issue of deshadowing the economy, ensure the dominance of the official labor market. Attention is focused on the deshadowing of the labor market as a priority task of the government in view of the emergence of such problems as illegal use of labor, concealment of real incomes, ignoring the conclusion of labor contracts and the development of wages in the form of «payment in envelopes». It was determined that the state policy of deshadowing the labor market should contain two mutually agreed components: administrative and motivational. It was established that the most effective measures of the authorities should be: establishment of clear control over compliance with labor legislation, prevention of manifestations of informal employment and payment of shadow wages, strengthening of responsibility for violations in this area. Among the main tasks, the reduction of the tax burden, balancing the demand and supply of labor force, focusing on the development of small entrepreneurship and others have been identified as the most important. A set of measures aimed at the deshadowing of the labor market in Ukraine is outlined, the need for coordinated activity and cooperation of authorities in terms of reducing and legalizing informal employment in Ukraine is substantiated. Novelty. A set of measures for the deshadowing of the labor market in Ukraine has been determined, the implementation of which will ensure the creation of conditions for raising the standards of decent work as a basis for legalizing labor relations and increasing wages by overcoming the contradiction between a high level of human capital development and an insufficient level of social capital. Practical value. The results of the study can be used in the process of carrying out the policy of economic deshadowing as a component of Ukraine's national security.

Under- or overexpansion of education? Trends in qualification mismatch in the United Kingdom and Germany, 1984–2017

Prominent theoretical positions in sociology and labor economics disagree whether educational expansion has outstripped the demand for qualified labor (overexpansion), or whether economies face a skill shortage despite increases in education (underexpansion). Focusing on the United Kingdom and West Germany, two countries with dissimilar skill formation institutions, patterns of expansion, and labor markets, this paper asks to what degree expansion of education has been absorbed. I point out shortcomings of wage-centered analyses and develop an approach that focuses on trends in self-assessed over- and underqualification. Using repeated surveys among workers and official labor market statistics, I estimate regression models that link the cohort-level expansion of education to the cohort-level prevalence of mismatch. Results suggest overexpansion in the United Kingdom, with overqualification increasing and underqualification decreasing over historical times and cohorts. West Germany, on the other hand, shows signs of underexpansion. While dominant theoretical accounts focus on the under-/overexpansion of tertiary education, my results show that mismatch-dynamics in both contexts are strongest for workers without university degrees.

ВНУТРІШНЬО ПЕРЕМІЩЕНІ ОСОБИ (ВПО) НА РИНКУ ПРАЦІ УКРАЇНИ: ПРОБЛЕМИ ТА МЕХАНІЗМИ ПІДТРИМКИ

The article is devoted to the study of the situation of IDPs and mechanisms of their support both in the general and official labour market. Based on the analysis of quantitative indicators of IDPs in the regional context, the author proves the importance of IDPs as a special segment of labour supply throughout the country. A significant increase in the burden on the registered labour market in terms of IDPs since 2022 has been identified, with a simultaneous decrease in their employment and involvement in other active and passive support programmes. Statistically, the deterioration of the situation of IDPs in the registered national labour market has been proven, especially in the south-eastern regions of the country. Among the existing mechanisms to support IDPs in the registered labour market, universal ones that apply to all unemployed dominate. Special support programmes for IDPs, such as reimbursement of transport costs for relocation to another area for employment, as well as reimbursement of employers' costs for retraining and professional development of IDPs (subject to certain conditions) are only legally enshrined, but are not actually implemented. The programme to facilitate the employment of IDPs by compensating employers for their labour costs is being implemented on a critically small scale nationally. The main strategies implemented by IDPs (including in the labour market) for their own survival were grouped and typified. An important component of IDPs' survival is their behaviour in the labour market in the context of reducing their own requirements and attracting people of retirement age. Statistically, there is a significant decrease in the ability of IDPs to earn income due to the lack of work since 2022. Higher unemployment rates among IDPs in the general labour market are observed in the south of Ukraine and Kyiv region. It is proved that there are no effective mechanisms to support IDPs in the labour market outside the SES. The state policy of supporting IDPs in the labour market is mainly limited to its registered segment and has a predominantly universal focus. The author proves the need to develop and implement targeted programmes to support IDPs in the general labour market through economic policy instruments (including by stimulating social entrepreneurship).

Labour market effects and changes among enterprises in free enterprise zones in Hungary

The aim of regional development and planning, as defined in the 1996 Spatial Development Law, is to promote social and economic growth and reduce significant economic and infrastructure disparities. Its role is to support community initiatives to this end, with a particular emphasis on promoting the catching up of lagging regions, reducing unemployment and supporting the regeneration of industrial and agricultural businesses. This legislation enabled the creation of the Free Enterprise Zones in Hungary in 2013. The list, which has been extended twice since then, currently includes 1202 municipalities. Municipalities belonging to the zones create a favourable environment for investment, and businesses that invest and create jobs in the area can benefit from corporate tax relief and contributions payable by employers and are eligible for EU funding. According to the hypothesis of our research, the number of jobseekers in the municipalities of FEZs (compared to other municipalities) has decreased significantly, while the number of enterprises has increased. Furthermore, counties with a higher proportion of FEZ municipalities were presumed to have received more EU funds. To demonstrate this, we examined the labour market processes within FEZs due to the effects of their inclusion in the zones. Drawing on official labour market and business-related regional statistics, the analysis takes a regional perspective and seeks to focus on temporality. The database contains data at the level of municipalities (registered jobseekers, public employees, active enterprises, number of employees, subsidies) for the period under study (2012-2020). In addition to labour market processes, a further focus of the analysis was the inclusion of the SME sector to uncover mutually positive effects. According to the findings of our research, the positive impact on labour market processes cannot be clearly justified, whereas for the enterprises, inclusion in the zone induced positive effects. A positive effect was also found in terms of average staff numbers. The results show that the use of development aid is more effective for enterprises operating within the zones than in other parts of Hungary.

Past and Future Trends in Refugee Migration on the Regional Level in Germany – An Analysis and Projection of Labor Market Effects

Since 2013, more than two million refugees have arrived in Germany and have been allocated across federal states and districts according to legal policies. A steadily increasing number of refugees is now entering the German labor market, albeit under varying economic and demographic contexts. However, regional differences in refugees’ labor market integration have received little attention both retrospectively and particularly prospectively, given the projected population decline across Germany. Addressing this apparent shortcoming in the literature, we collect data on refugee arrivals by gender, nationality, approval rates, and regional allocation from 1995 to 2019. Applying principal component analysis and time series analysis, we first analyze past patterns of refugee migration to Germany and project both arrivals and regional allocations by gender and nationality until 2030. Then, combining the collected migration figures for German labor market regions and official labor market statistics, we investigate past regional employment effects from 2008 to 2019. Next, we calculate corresponding future employment effects conditional on our projected refugee figures, our estimation results, and official regional demographic forecasts until 2030. Our findings suggest that refugee migration does not affect German labor market regions equally, but instead has and will continue to lead to distinct regional employment effects. Moreover, the labor market integration differs by gender and origin of the refugees. Consequently, the interaction of regional employment effects with projected population change gives rise to different regional mitigation potentials in view of the upcoming population decline.
 * This article belongs to a special issue on "Refugee Migration to Europe – Challenges and Potentials for Cities and Regions".

The Impact of Illegal Migration on Regional Labor Markets in Russia

The article reveals the problems of the impact of illegal migration on regional labor markets, and the increase in shadow employment, which have a negative impact on the economy of the regions. The paper analyzes negative factors and aspects of illegal migration. The authors present and analyze official statistical data on the number of offenses committed by foreign migrants, on shadow employment in the country, as well as research data from the Institute of Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences concerning the frequency of manifestations of propensity to illegal activities and the involvement of workers in the shadow labor market in Russia. The shadow sector of the economy is very attractive for the economically active population, which is replenished every year with new groups of the most active, young participants in economic activity as they grow up and enter working age, as a result of a conscious strategy of enterprising people who do not want to pay the state a significant part of their income in the form of taxes and social contributions, as well as employees who are partially or fully employed in the shadow sector of the economy, part of which are migrant workers. The object of the research is the regional labor market on the example of the Sverdlovsk region, and the subject is the nature of the impact of illegal migration of foreign citizens and Russians living in other regions, coming to the region and carrying out illegal business and labor activities. The study presents a typology of illegal migration, the criterion of which is the nature of its impact on the regional labor market. The article analyzes the reasons for the reproduction of the shadow economy, the increase in the number of economic entities operating in the shadow sector, the accession of new types of economic activities to it, which contributes to an increase in capital turnover in it and negatively affects the national security of Russia. The paper considers negative trends in the social and labor sphere in connection with labor migration, factors contributing to the growth of the shadow sector, and assesses the impact of illegal migration on regional labor markets. The authors propose a set of measures implemented within the framework of the state strategy to combat the shadow economy, aimed at minimizing illegal migration, shadow and development of the official labor market, both at the regional and federal levels.

Fiscal Integration in an Experimental Union: How Path-Breaking Was the EU's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Fiscal Integration in an Experimental Union: How Path-Breaking Was the EU's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Хозяйственно-экономические практики сельского стиля жизни в Колумбии и России: социологический анализ

The article analyzes the lifestyle activities of the rural population of Russia and Colombia in the economic sphere. The possibility of comparing data for both countries, provided by similar methods of statistical observations adopted by the statistical agencies of both countries, and the unified principles of organizing a sociological study conducted by the authors, is shown. The features of rural economic and economic practices identified through indicators of the labor market and employment are revealed. In Russia, these are the dominance of wage employment to the detriment of entrepreneurship, the high proportion of informal self-employment, in which agricultural activity predominates (with its systemic reduction in the official labor market), the growth of pendulum labor migration to cities. In Colombia, there are a steady dominance of agricultural activity in the field of rural employment, a high proportion of laborers and small non-agricultural businesses, usually informal, high employment of women in the household, and an increase in permanent labor migration to cities. It has been established that the main motivational factors of rural lifestyle practices are determined by living conditions and are the same in Russia and Colombia; are objective and rational. These include, first of all, the location of the village: proximity to the city everywhere promotes a plurality of labor strategies; changes in welfare and employment structure: abandonment of agricultural activities, job loss, low incomes stimulate self-employment, entrepreneurial activity and labor migration (pendulum and permanent) to cities. Rational, objectively conditioned motives lead to the emergence of essentially identical lifestyle practices, which may differ in forms and frequency of manifestation, reflecting national specificity. It is shown that a change in the external socio-economic environment causes a similar rational socio-behavioral reaction in rural society, regardless of national characteristics.

Emerging Forms of Precariousness Related to Autonomy at Work: Toward an Empirical Typology.

Societal, technological, and economical changes in the last decades have led to the development of new work arrangements located in a ≪ gray zone ≫ between standard employment and classical self-employment (Cappelli and Keller, 2013a; ILO, 2016; Katz and Krueger, 2016). Official labor market statistics must be adapted to provide researchers and policymakers with relevant data on this population (Gazier et al., 2016; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, 2017; ILO, 2018). Cappelli and Keller (2013b) point out that new work arrangements are characterized by changes in the management of the work relationships (with a growing intervention of labor market intermediaries) and in the way the work is supervised (from work processes to outcomes). The concept of autonomy thus becomes a central feature of new work arrangements leading to specific configurations of risks and opportunities for individual workers concerned. Autonomy can be divided in three main dimensions: work status, work content, and working conditions (Pichault and McKeown, 2019). International surveys such as the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) provide valuable data covering these dimensions of autonomy. Our paper is focused on a specific category of workers experiencing the ambiguities of autonomy at work: Independent Professionals (Ipros). Ipros provide various forms of intellectual work in the service sector through self-employment and are often regarded as a highly autonomous workforce (Leighton and Brown, 2014; McKeown, 2015) while they can also be subject to precarious situations regarding their economic dependency or freedom of choice (de Peuter, 2011; Standing, 2011; Bergvall-Kåreborn and Howcroft, 2013). The objectives of this paper are, first, to build a set of indicators likely to measure the various dimensions of autonomy, and, second, to provide an empirical typology of new work arrangements by using cluster analysis methods. Through the application of this analytical framework on the EWCS 2015 data, we observe various situations in terms of risk and opportunities related to autonomy, shedding light on unexpected precarious situations where Ipros face the risks of autonomy without getting the associated benefits. Our results provide a nuanced typology of empirical situations, overcoming such a dichotomic vision of non-standard work arrangements.

US AND UK LABOUR MARKETS BEFORE AND DURING THE COVID-19 CRASH

We examine labour market performance in the US and the UK prior to the onset of the Covid-19 crash. We then track the changes that have occurred in the months and days from the beginning of March 2020 using what we call the Economics of Walking About (EWA) that shows a collapse twenty times faster and much deeper than the Great Recession. We examine unemployment insurance claims by state by day in the US as well as weekly national data. We track the distributional impact of the shock and show that already it is hitting the most vulnerable groups who are least able to work from home the hardest – the young, the least educated and minorities. We have no official labour market data for the UK past January but see evidence that job placements have fallen sharply. We report findings from an online poll fielded from 11–16 April 2020 showing that a third of workers in Canada and the US report that they have lost at least half of their income due to the Covid-19 crisis, compared with a quarter in the UK and 45 per cent in China. We estimate that the unemployment rate in the US is around 20 per cent in April. It is hard to know what it is in the UK given the paucity of data, but it has gone up a lot.

Can media and text analytics provide insights into labour market conditions in China?

The official Chinese labour market indicators have been seen as problematic given their small cyclical movement and their only partial capture of the labour force. In our paper, we build a monthly Chinese labour market conditions index (LMCI) using text analytics applied to Mainland Chinese-language newspapers over the period from 2003 to 2017. We use a supervised machine learning approach by training a support vector machine classification model. The information content and the forecast ability of our LMCI are tested against official labour market activity measures in wage and credit growth estimations. Surprisingly, one of our findings is that the much-maligned official labour market indicators do contain information. However, their information content is not robust and, in many cases, our LMCI can provide forecasts that are significantly superior. Moreover, regional disaggregation of the LMCI illustrates that labour conditions in the export-oriented coastal region are sensitive to export growth, while those in inland regions are not. This suggests that text analytics can, indeed, be used to extract useful labour market information from Chinese newspaper articles.

SOCIAL INCLUSION OF INDIVIDUALS SUFFERING FROM EXCLUSION – EVALUATION OF MOTIVES AND ACTIONS IN VIEW OF OWN RESEARCH

Main aim of analyses presented in the article was to determine the motives and actions which promote social inclusion of the unemployed, most frequently suffering from social exclusion. The survey was conducted in 2018 based on the questionnaire among the population of 350 respondents. The analyses included the distribution of answers to survey question within the entire sample together with the verification of statistical significance between the answers provided and such variables as: gender, age, education and period of being registered in Municipal Employment Office. Results of the study show that increasing social awareness on the access to benefits is an important motif influencing social inclusion. The awareness of the fact of being deprived of the right to retirement pension, no access to healthcare and increased creditworthiness shape the knowledge of the society in relation to the importance of working within the official labour market to a significant extent.

Is Long-Term Non-employment a Lifetime Disease?

Long-term non-employment (which is not long-term unemployment) has been almost neglected in the academic literature, long term here implying up to 15–25 years of absence from the labour market, let alone full and definitive exit. This study takes the lead from a previous paper (2017) in which the magnitude of long term non-employment (LTNE) and its duration are estimated from administrative databases of Italy, Germany and Spain (Contini B, et al., IZA discussion papers, no.11167, 2017). In all three countries long-term nonemployment appears to be a lifetime disease for many workers who drop out of the (official) labour market and never return, left unsheltered from the welfare institutions. The main task of this work is an analytical exploration of the factors leading to LTNE development in Italy, estimated at almost 1.3 million male individuals (about as many as the officially unemployed), average duration exceeding 12 years. An econometric exploration indicates that it is often more profitable for employers to hire new unexperienced young workers in place of confirming individuals already onthe-job, leading to excessive turnover, long-term non-employment and waste of human capital. There are strong policy implications of this result as the EU Commission has for many years advocated low wages for new entrants and high contract flexibility as major instruments to promote youth employment.

Long-Term Effects of Research-Based and Practice-Based Job Search Interventions: An RCT Reevaluation

Objective: This study reevaluates the effects of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of job search interventions on labor force participation. In the trial, various methods of job search interventions were included, of which about half were research-based JOBS (Job Opportunity and Basic Skills) interventions and the other half were practice-based, that is, without a theoretical or empirical base. This study compares effects of the research-based and practice-based interventions. Methods: The trial included data from 1998 to 2000 of 1,013 unemployed people in Finland with 3-year follow-up data from official labor market records. Multilevel multinomial logistic regression was used to analyze the intervention effects on labor market outcomes. Results: The results demonstrated that beneficial long-term effects were produced only in interventions based on the research-based JOBS method for participants at risk of baseline depression. In contrast, the practice-based interventions seemed to have adverse effects on employment. Conclusions: These findings indicate the importance of research-based interventions within active labor market policies.

Assessing the growth of remote working and its consequences for effort, well‐being and work‐life balance

This article critically assesses the assumption that more and more work is being detached from place and that this is a ‘win‐win’ for both employers and employees. Based on an analysis of official labour market data, it finds that only one‐third of the increase in remote working can be explained by compositional factors such as movement to the knowledge economy, the growth in flexible employment and organisational responses to the changing demographic make‐up of the employed labour force. This suggests that the detachment of work from place is a growing trend. This article also shows that while remote working is associated with higher organisational commitment, job satisfaction and job‐related well‐being, these benefits come at the cost of work intensification and a greater inability to switch off.

Precarious jobs: Where are they, and how do they affect well-being?

AbstractBy the end of the 20th century, there was general agreement that most labour markets were in transition and that employment was becoming less secure. However, official labour market data have not shown a dramatic increase in temporary or casual employment. This article takes a new look at the changing characteristics of employment and offers a new method to measure employment security: the Employment Precarity Index. We use the Employment Precarity Index to assess how insecure employment associated with a ‘gig’ economy might affect well-being and social relations, including health outcomes, household well-being and community involvement.

RECESSION AND RECOVERY IN SCOTLAND: THE IMPACT ON WOMEN’S LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION BEYOND THE HEADLINE STATISTICS

IntroductionScotland entered into recession in the third quarter of 2008 and remained there for five quarters until the third quarter of 2009. The Scottish economy experienced a peak to trough decline in output of 5.6%, compared to 6.3% for the UK as a whole (Gillespie, 2013: 14). The recovery in Scotland proceeded at a relatively slow pace and it was not until the end of 2013 that the lost output experienced during the recession was recovered. The impact of recession on women and men depends on their different starting positions in the paid labor market, occupational grouping and allocation of earnings (Rubery, 1988/2010; Rubery and Rafferty, 2012) as well as their relative positions with respect to the state in terms of welfare provision (Sainsbury, 1996). Analysis of the headline figures indicate that the employment between women and men narrowed significantly during Scotland's economic recovery, as women's increased at a faster rate than men's. On the face of it, economic recovery has been a good news story for Scotland's women. However, focusing solely on headline statistics gives a partial analysis that could underestimate the true impact of recession and recovery on gender equality in paid labor markets (Harkness, 2013). Similarly, a focus on paid work alone is limited in assessing gender equality, given the gendered division of labor in households where women undertake the majority of unpaid household work, particularly care. Making use of secondary data and official labor market statistics, this paper aims to develop a more in-depth analysis of the impact of the recession and subsequent economic recovery on the labor market position of women in Scotland by considering the nature of growth and the impact of recession and recovery on unpaid work.Employment and Unemployment in ScotlandAs Table 1 shows, the great defined as the period between December-February 2008 and December-February 2010, resulted in a significant fall in the overall level of in Scotland. Despite the recovery being somewhat long and erratic, the numbers in had returned to their pre-recession levels by 2015. The most significant change is that the gap between male and female rates narrowed signif- icantly over the course of the recession and recovery, from 9.2% in 2008 to 2.2% at the beginning of 2016. This is the result of female rising at a much faster pace than male post-recession. Female is now higher than pre-recession levels and indeed since comparable records began in 1992 (Office for National Statistics, 2016a). Changes in the social security system, in particular the increase in the state pension age for women to bring it into line with men, has resulted in more women working longer or seeking additional to augment private pension provisions, may have accounted for some of the increase in female (Office for National Statistics, 2013; Webster, 2014; Scottish Government, 2015a, 2016).During the 2008-09 recession, total in Scotland fell by 91,000, over two-thirds of the decrease was accounted for by the decline in male employment. Therefore, the impact in terms has been greater for men than women. This is not unique to Scotland and indeed the tendency for this recession to have a disproportionate impact on the of men led some commentators to describe it as a mancession, a phrase coined in the USA to describe the trends in unemployment in the recession's early stages (Perry, 2009; Wall, 2009). The impact of any economic downturn tends to be borne mostly by men because there is a greater concentration of male workers in cyclically sensitive industries, such as construction and manufacturing. Over the whole period between 2008 and 2016 the number of men in increased by 0.7% whereas the number of women in increased by 4. …

New Approaches to the Study of Long-Term Non-Employment Duration in Italy, Germany and Spain

This study proposes a new approach to the analysis of non-employment and its duration in Germany, Italy and Spain using administrative longitudinal databases. Non-employment includes the discouraged unemployed not entitled to draw unemployment benefits and the long-term inactive. Many of the non-employed individuals will never return to the official labour market. We estimate the magnitude and duration of non-employment, applying the survival methodology developed in recent years to deal with ‘workforce disposal’. Long-term non-employment (LTNE) may lead to dramatic changes in individual lifestyles, family and childbearing projects, levels of poverty and welfare at large.