Segmented Labor Research Articles

Multiple faces of labour market segmentation within the Turkish construction industry

Abstract This study explores labour market segmentation within the Turkish construction industry, in a developing country context characterised by refugee influxes and heightened earthquake risks. We apply statistical and regression analyses using 2002–2020 Household Labour Force Survey data to explore segmentation with a specific focus on payment, job type and social security enrolment. The findings reveal a segmented labour market where the progress in regular, permanent and registered employment in the 2000s failed to encompass most construction workers. Lower wages, and temporary and unregistered work are more common among the youngest and oldest workers, those with poor education and qualification levels, immigrants, and those employed by micro enterprises. The construction industry lags behind both manufacturing and services in terms of registered and permanent employment rates and average wages. The prevalence of workers in elementary jobs with little education highlights the ongoing challenge of ensuring a highly skilled workforce, while reconstruction activities in earthquake-prone zones and the demand for urban transformation in Türkiye are increasing. We argue that improvements in working conditions constitute an urgent restructuring component in the sector for elevating the status of construction jobs, addressing the shortage of skilled labour and ensuring a high-quality building stock that upholds the right to a secure life in Türkiye.

Unemployed and then? The role of non‐standard employment in labour market trajectories after unemployment

AbstractNon‐standard employment (NSE) might offer employment opportunities for unemployed workers, who would not find a job otherwise and can improve their human capital while working in NSE instead of being unemployed. NSE thus could serve as a bridge to regular, permanent employment. However, these stepping stone effects might not occur in a segmented labour market, when the accumulated human capital is not useful for regular jobs or NSE is not a positive signal to potential employers. Using German administrative data and sequence and cluster analysis, this article examined the labour market trajectories of initially unemployed individuals between 2012 and 2015 over a 4‐year period with a focus on four common forms of NSE. The results indicate that NSE is not limited to marginal groups but 62% of the initially unemployed belong to a cluster with a substantial share of NSE. Furthermore, while most individuals stay in NSE, some regular full‐time employment occurs after NSE.

Racial Regimes and White European Jewish Supremacy as Property

This article argues that the Zionist theft and expropriation of Palestinian land resulted in it being made into white property and that Zionism can be understood as a textbook case of Cedric Robinson's concept of racial regimes that explains how race is reproduced even though race is denied by the Zionist colonisers as justifying the relations of power. The article follows Cheryl Harris's and Noura Erakat's work on whiteness as property that, according to Erakat, leaves the Palestinian natives outside the category of Jewish nationals to be removed, dispossessed, and contained. The article illustrates how the ongoing colonisation of Palestine as expressing white European supremacy involves several aspects of racial capitalism—the Judaisation of Palestinian lands, the segmentation of labour from the Zionist policy of the Conquest of (Hebrew) Labour to the reliance on cheap and dispensable Palestinian labour, and the lebensraum plans to relocate the Gaza Strip population and re-settle it. 2

Crossers in a Segmented Labour Market: Occupational Advancement and Wage Changes from Semi-Skilled and Unskilled Jobs

How the upward mobility chances of workers in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs are shaped by influences at the organisational and sectoral level remains an open question. This article aims to close this research gap by examining the role of internal labour market characteristics in the promotion prospects and wage increases of workers in semi-skilled and unskilled positions. The hypotheses are derived from dual and segmented labour market theory. Regression analyses based on linked-employer-employee-data (LIAB), covering 44,024 workers in semi-skilled and unskilled positions from 2005 to 2010, underline the importance of the internal labour market. A considerable share of workers moved to skilled positions through company change. For the workers who stayed with the company, career advancements were associated with regular training investments and formalised regulations at the company level. Collective agreements, in contrast, were associated with lower chances of upward mobility, but higher wages.

Here to stay? The rapid evolution of the temporary staffing market in Iceland

In recent years there has been a significant shortage of workers in Iceland. The traditional method of arranging temporary work, through direct contracts between employees and employers, has not sufficed. Moreover, there is a skills mismatch that compounds the shortage of workers as the sectors that have grown most rapidly in recent years mainly employ unskilled labor. This study examined the historical background of temporary work in Iceland, recent developments and in particular the growing importance of temporary staffing agencies, as well as the economic rationale for temporary staffing agencies, and the segmented labor market in Iceland. The study employs expert opinion approach, together with content and statistical analysis. Experts placed strongest emphasis on temporary workforce dependency on economic conditions, closely followed by sector triggered temporary workforce fluctuation. Socio-legal infrastructure for temporary workforce had the third strongest emphasis with other themes being less emphasized. These dramatic changes to the Icelandic labor market have undoubtedly had a significant impact on Icelandic society but there is surprisingly little research available into this. The efforts of unions and the Federation of Employees have helped to push through legislation on temporary staffing agencies and the rights of foreign workers, however, as long as there is economic rationale for their operation and a legal and regulatory framework that accommodates them the agencies can be expected to continue bringing temporary staff to Iceland. The impact on the labor market and society thus seems likely to be permanent.

Not a good fit? The roles of aesthetic labour, gender, race, Indigeneity, and citizenship in food service employment

Abstract Companies and business lobby groups bemoan a lack of qualified workers, even for entry-level or low-skill jobs. At issue is a stated inability to find workers with the right ‘fit’ for the role or business. But what does fit really mean? We draw on human capital theory and labour segmentation theory to examine how perceptions of fit are shaped. We conducted ninety-three interviews with food service workers, managers, and other industry stakeholders and found that employment decisions are shaped by stereotypes, with a particular focus on ‘pretty privilege’ or aesthetic labour, as well as Indigeneity, citizenship, race, and gender. We present implications for research and practice in the food services industry.

Women migrant workers’ (WMWS) deskilling

Women are key actresses in sending and receiving countries’ developments, and their contributions includes social and financial remittances, education and the transmission of social and cultural values (United Nations, 2006). Despite, women migrants’ undeniable contributions, they too often undergo deskilling, a process defined as the employment of workers in a different field or below their qualifications. The factors influencing deskilling include the lack of recognition of skills and qualifications, difficult access to information and employment opportunities, lack of support in the destination country and linguistic barriers. Migration can impact the social mobility of women migrants, yet not always positively (Nowicka, 2012). In the labour market, women migrants are generally disadvantaged because of occupational gender segregation, the lack of network support and childcare responsibilities (EU Commission, 2022), with higher risks of deskilling and downward social mobility. The objective of the brief is to shed light on WMWs’ deskilling and explore the impact of gender and ethnicity in labour segmentation, de-emancipation being a consequence of WMWs’ deskilling and overrepresentation in reproductive unskilled jobs.

A dynamic analysis of capital, corruption, and labor market interactions

The complex relationship between corruption, economic growth, and labor dynamics has long been a challenge for policymakers. This study sheds new light on these dynamic interactions by constructing a novel economic model with saturation effects that integrate employment considerations. Unlike static or purely empirical models, our approach captures the system’s evolution over time, employing a logistic growth function to realistically reflect economic limitations and distinguishing between employed and unemployed labor segments. By incorporating a Holling type II function, the model captures the nonlinear influence of corruption on economic growth, acknowledging diminishing returns at higher corruption levels. Through advanced theoretical analysis, we establish the existence and stability conditions for three distinct long-term equilibria: stagnation, corruption-free growth with full employment, and a coexistent state where corruption persists alongside some economic activity. Our analysis goes beyond merely identifying these equilibria by revealing the specific conditions under which each state prevails, and we solidify these theoretical predictions with comprehensive numerical simulations depicting the system’s behavior under varying conditions. The findings underscore the importance of robust anti-corruption measures and a labor-intensive economic approach, highlighting that fostering growth outpacing resource depletion is crucial for escaping stagnation and achieving sustainable development. Overall, this research advances the field by integrating employment dynamics, a Holling type II function for corruption, and a focus on stability analysis, providing invaluable insights for policymakers aiming to promote sustainable economic development, combat corruption, and ensure healthy employment conditions.

The advancement of Industry 4.0 and the transformations in the labor market Closing gender gaps? Policies under debate

The writing aims to share the progress of a research project that analyzes three strategic economic sectors for Argentina's sustainable and inclusive development, such as the Science and Technology sector, the Popular Economy, and Industry 4.0. We will focus on the latter, one of the economy's most dynamic sectors and with great capacity for expansion and job creation. In dialogue with profound changes being carried out aimed at promoting gender equality, and in line with the presence of gender machinery at the highest state levels, we propose to account for the policies and actions being carried out at the National level, at the level of the Province of Buenos Aires, in Córdoba and Santa Fe, which seek to close inequality gaps in the sector. These provinces were selected based on having Women's Ministries where one of their objectives is to mainstream the gender perspective in state management. Along these lines, the programs and actions carried out by the aforementioned ministries will be presented, as well as those specific to the sector, typifying them based on what type of gender gap they are addressing. Whether it addresses labor segmentation or, on the other hand, addresses other issues linked to violence, care, participation and promotion, and income.

Labour market segmentation and the gender wage gap in Spain

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyse the gender wage gap (GWG) in Spain adopting a labour market segmentation approach. Once we obtain the different labour segments (or idiosyncratic labour markets), we are able to decompose the GWG into its observed and unobserved heterogeneity components.Design/methodology/approachWe use the data from the Continuous Sample of Working Lives for the year 2021 (matched employer–employee [EE] data). Contingency tables and clustering techniques are applied to employment data to identify idiosyncratic labour markets where men and/or women of different ages tend to match/associate with different sectors of activity and occupation groups. Once this “heatmap” of labour associations is known, we can analyse its hottest areas (the idiosyncratic labour markets) from the perspective of wage discrimination by gender (Oaxaca-Blinder model).FindingsIn Spain, in general, men are paid more than women, and this is not always justified by their respective attributes. Among our results, the fact stands out that women tend to move to those idiosyncratic markets (biclusters) where the GWG (in favour of men) is smaller.Research limitations/implicationsIt has not been possible to obtain remuneration data by job-placement, but an annual EE relationship is used. Future research should attempt to analyse the GWG across the wage distribution in the different idiosyncratic markets.Practical implicationsOur combination of methodologies can be adapted to other economies and variables and provides detailed information on the labour-matching process and gender wage discrimination in segmented labour markets.Social implicationsOur contribution is very important for labour market policies, trying to reduce unfair inequalities.Originality/valueThe study of the GWG from a novel labour segmentation perspective can be interesting for other researchers, institutions and policy makers.

Labour segmentation in NCR Delhi’s automobile sector: a political response of capital to labour struggles

This paper aims to understand the changing dynamics of internal labour market segmentation intertwined with the history of working-class struggle in an industrial belt in India’s National Capital Region (NCR). Nuances of workers’ class struggle in the automobile sector in Delhi-NCR over the last 15 years have shown that unity between permanent and contract workers was key to several successful struggles against worsening work conditions and management control within the global value chains of automobile production. Our fieldwork findings, along with direct and indirect political engagement in the region, reveal that increasing salaries and allotment of supervisory roles to small sections of permanent workers, coupled with the simultaneous fragmentation a lower strata of workers into multiple categories with very low salaries, benefits and heavy workloads, have been significant attempts by capital to break class solidarity among different sections of workers. Relatively pro-labour legislation and trade unions tend to concentrate in high-wage zones, while low-wage and precarious employment remains unprotected by such institutional mechanisms. Labour segmentation is inherent to capitalist exploitation, guarded by institutional mechanisms. Advanced mechanisation reduces distinction of skill requirements between highly paid permanent and lowly paid contract workers. In this context, labour segmentation is a political response to trade unionism from the side of capitalist management.

A North-South Agent–Based Model of segmented labor markets: the role of education and trade asymmetries

Abstract Drawing upon the labour-augmented K+S Agent-Based Model (ABM), this paper develops a two-country North-South ABM wherein the leader and the laggard country interact through the international trade of machines. The model aims to address sources of asymmetries and possible converge patterns between two economies belonging to a currency union, that are initially differentiated only in terms of the education level they are able to ensure. Education is modeled as a macro-level public policy differently targeting three levels, that is primary, secondary and tertiary. After being educated, when workers enter the labour force, they face a segmented labour market, divided into three types of qualifications and resulting functions deployed inside firms, i.e., basic, medium and advanced occupations. The three markets are heterogeneous in terms of both requested education level and minimum offered wage. We experiment with different education and trade settings. Ultimately, we are interested in understanding the coupling effects of asymmetries in education, which reverberate in segmented labour markets and differentiated growth patterns. Notably, our focus on capital-goods trade, rather than on consumption goods, allows us to investigate a direct link between productive capabilities in complex products and country growth prospects.

How Caste Shapes the Origin and Transformation of Work and Employment in India

Studies in social sciences have an extensive literature that deals with caste as a governing social institution and its relevance in India’s socio-political and economic realms. For instance, research on labour segmentation and its linkages with material inequality or economic status has a long history. This article contextualises the history of caste order in India, which recognised the predominant role of occupation and the related socio-economic superiority of work, value and reward. Based on an analytical review of available literature, it suggests that in addition to the debates on the policy of reservations in India, there is an equally pertinent question: Why the direct impact to disintegrate caste-occupational affiliations continues to remain at numerically miniscule levels (central government data) despite an elaborate constitutional mechanism to secure valued positions of formal employment in place?

The cost of crossing gender boundaries: Trans women of color and the racialized workplace gender order

AbstractHow does persistent and cumulative gender regulation produce economic insecurity? Trans people face markedly high levels of workplace discrimination, unemployment, and poverty, and therefore offer unique insight into this question. Prior research theorizes how trans workers get repositioned in a binary, patriarchal gender order, but we lack a conceptual model to explain the labor market experience of people who are systematically sanctioned as gender deviants. By analyzing work history interviews from 23 trans women of color based across the United States, this article argues that crossing gender boundaries is a racialized experience that can come with an economic cost. After transitioning, trans women of color face three forms of economic sanctioning: exclusion, a racially gendered glass ceiling, and constrained employment options within a segmented labor market. Thus, work organizations premised on a hierarchical classification scheme have the option, not only to reposition people on the basis of a classification change, but to deem them unassimilable.

Historical Evolution of Ideas and Theories Related to the Concept of Civil Society

The article presents the historical origin and growth of civil society. The philosophies of many philosophers show the ever-changing dimensions of civil society from time to time. The historical debate starts from classical political economists’ views, continues with Hegelian, Marx’s and Gramsci’s notions of civil society and ends at the current debate on civil society. Classical scholars considered civil society as an economic sphere and the property of emerging industrial societies that were characterized by complex segmentation of labor, the centrality of production and economic interactions. They give more importance to the state rather than individuals. Hegel, Karl Marx and Gramsci are the main philosophers of the classical school of thought. Other scholars like Herbert Marcuse, Jurgen Habermas, John Rawls, Michal Sandel, Charles Tayler and Michal Walzer also contributed in the debate of relationship between the state and civil society. Current scholars like Foucault, Derrida, Deliuze, Lyotard, Fradric Jameson and Francis Fukuyama have discussed the term of civil society with new directions and ideas. The main focus of these scholars is state, human rights, morality, socialism, liberalism and social movements. Their main point is that individuals are more important than the state. The major analysis of this article is based on qualitative approach. The article concludes that the nature of ideas about relationship between the state and civil society and the influence of civil society on state and that of state on civil society have shaped civil society in different dimensions in different periods of history.

Relational Inequality and Economic Outcomes: A Consideration of the Indian Experience

ABSTRACT The study of inequality by economists has largely focussed on distributive inequalities of various kinds. The focus on different dimensions of distributive inequality in access and outcomes is welcome. However, it is also important to consider relational inequalities and power imbalances, which economists typically consider to be the domain of sociology, anthropology and related disciplines. Many economic processes cannot be understood without analysing the underlying relational inequalities, which can reveal much about economic processes and associated policies. Some examples from the Indian experience, specifically relating to power imbalances created by gender and caste differentiation, indicate how this can play out. These are not simply ‘traditional social forms’ that are in opposition to or contradictory with capitalist accumulation. Rather, they are crucial in enabling segmented labour markets and enabling extractivist patterns of accumulation, on which recent Indian economic growth has been dependent.

Extending social protection to migrant workers in the region of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC): An analysis of enablers and barriers

AbstractThis article explores factors influencing the extension of social protection to migrant workers in the region of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC). While there are some indications of new momentum for reforms, we find that reforms to address gaps in legal social protection coverage have historically been hindered by the very design of the migration system, including the assumed short‐term migration time frame and over reliance on employer‐sponsored provisions, as well as the political economy in the region, which translates into a segmented labour market and associated social protection entitlements for national and migrant workers, and limited channels for migrant worker representation. Despite some new mechanisms being developed, labour dispute and judicial systems are often ineffective in protecting workers and their families when benefits are not paid. Bureaucratic, financial, language, documentation and geographic barriers constitute further obstacles to migrant workers’ access to social protection in practice. The article closes with key policy implications, including measures for: developing comprehensive legal provisions in line with international standards and principles as well as the commitments to leave no one behind and to ensure social protection for all in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; addressing practical barriers, power imbalances and outreach, monitoring and enforcement gaps; and strengthening dialogue and collaboration between all actors, including GCC and country of origin governments, employers, workers, and wider stakeholders advocating for migrant workers’ rights.

‘Știu eu pe cineva’ Self-Organized Mobility, Labor Intermediation and the Twofold Exploitability of Romanian Workers in the Austrian Fresh Food Sector

The workings of expansive Romanian migration networks across Western Europe as forms of self-organized migration are well-documented. Yet, transnational relations have rarely been examined outside of Romanian migrant networks, namely in their potential source of value extraction in broader accumulation processes. This article thus attempts to look at the self-organization of mobility of Romanian workers - in particular, the practice of labor intermediation - in relation to its exploitation in highly segmented labor markets. In the following, I ethnographically substantiate the view that in my examined field site, the Austrian fresh food sector, it is precisely the self-organization of mobility among Romanian workers that became exploitable by Austrian growers in highly efficient ways. Based on findings from a year-long and ongoing ethnography in an Austrian greenhouse complex, I show how growers capitalize particularly on the practice of labor intermediation to maintain the resilience and profitability of local agricultural businesses in the restructured Austrian agricultural market. The resulting workplace regime constitutes workers in a twofold exploitability: not only is their labor power, but also their interpersonal relations subject to value extraction. This analysis implies the need to move beyond commonplace vocabularies of “social capital” to grasp the persistent exploitation of migrant workers and their reproductive capacities across segmented labor markets in Europe.

Economic and welfare effects of immigration policy: Lessons from the experience of Kuwait

Immigration has increasingly caused heated debates in many countries. Political populism has often given rise to anti-immigrant attitude among the public. Immigration policy decisions have often been based on perceptions and attitudes rather than evidences, specifically considerations of net benefits to the host country. The main objective of this study is to quantify economic impacts of immigration policy, focusing on economic and welfare consequences of reducing the size of immigrant labor. This is illustrated by using the case of Kuwait. The authorities have recently decided to reduce the size of immigrant population. This study set out with the aim of measuring consequences of reducing immigrant labor. A multi-sectoral and economy-wide model was utilized. The model was specified appropriately to capture most features of a segmented labor market. Simulation experiments were conducted in scenarios related to the existing policy, the proposed policy of reducing the number of immigrants, and mitigations required to minimize adverse impacts of the immigration policy reform. The focus was on macro-economy, sectoral and welfare and income distribution impacts. The results obtained indicated inevitable adverse economic and welfare impacts on natives unless the reduction in immigrant labor was accompanied with productivity enhancing policies.

Post-Keynesian Economics: New Foundations, by Marc LavoieChapter 5: Effective Demand and Employment

ABSTRACT This article examines Chapter 5 ‘Effective Demand and Employment’ in Post-Keynesian Economics: New Foundations by Marc Lavoie. This chapter covers one of the most distinctive contributions of the post-Keynesians, and one of its most profound insights. Analysis of effective demand and employment is a crucial and distinct foundation of post-Keynesian economics. Identifying the determinants of the level of employment and output represent one of the most significant contributions of post-Keynesian analysis. This is in total contrast to mainstream theory, according to which the level of output and employment are determined in the labour market, with labour seen as just another commodity, and the wage rate playing the role of the price equating supply and demand for labour. For post-Keynesians, the main determinant of the level of output and employment is the level of effective demand rather than the wage rate. Their views on the labour markets, taking into account segmented labour markets and efficiency wages, are considered. The determinants of profits and the profit share play important roles in the determination of employment and output. It is argued that fiscal policy plays a vital role in economic stabilisation, and that the typical arguments regarding its limitations are incorrect.