Employment Trajectories Research Articles

Structural Racism And Black Women's Employment In The US Health Care Sector.

The objective of this study was to describe how structural racism and sexism shape the employment trajectories of Black women in the US health care system. Using data from the American Community Survey, we found that Black women are more overrepresented than any other demographic group in health care and are heavily concentrated in some of its lowest-wage and most hazardous jobs. More than one in five Black women in the labor force (23percent) are employed in the health care sector, and among this group, Black women have the highest probability of working in the long-term-care sector (37percent) and in licensed practical nurse or aide occupations (42percent). Our findings link Black women's position in the labor force to the historical legacies of sexism and racism, dating back to the division of care work in slavery and domestic service. Our policy recommendations include raising wages across the low-wage end of the sector, providing accessible career ladders to allow workers in low-wage health care to advance, and addressing racism in the pipeline of health care professions.

The condition of European economic democracy: A comparative analysis of individual and collective employment rights

The condition of European economic democracy is generally recognised to be in a fragile state. Recent discussions have centred on pressures to converge towards an Anglo-American model of flexible and deregulated employment relations and systems, consonant with a broader neoliberal economic governance discourse. Existing approaches suggest an uneven experience between countries around a general trend of deterioration. In this article we offer two new contributions to these debates. First, we introduce findings from an Economic Democracy Index (EDI) we have developed. This goes beyond existing indices of employment and industrial democracy to allow us to examine the changing nature of individual employment rights as well as collective bargaining conditions between European countries. Second, we depart from existing studies of European employment relations, which tend to take a comparative national approach, by situating national employment relations and trajectories within a wider set of spatial and social relations. Qualitative analysis of three country cases (Denmark, Portugal and Slovenia) supplements our EDI analysis. Our evidence suggests the importance of multi-scalar relational and institutional dynamics between social actors at the national scale and those at higher scales such as the European Union in understanding variations in country performance on the EDI.

Unfinished Business? Academic and Labor Market Profile of Adults With Substantial College Credits But No Degree

Recent state policy efforts have focused on increasing attainment among adults with some college but no degree (SCND). Yet little is actually known about the SCND population. Using data from the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), we provide the first detailed profile on the academic, employment, and earnings trajectories of the SCND population and how these compare with VCCS graduates. We show that the share of SCND students who are academically ready to re-enroll and would benefit from doing so may be substantially lower than policy makers anticipate. Specifically, we estimate that few SCND students (approximately 3%) could fairly easily re-enroll in fields of study from which they could reasonably expect a sizable earnings premium from completing their degree.

Employment Trajectories Across the Life Course and Oral Health Among Older Persons in a Developing Country.

A significant research gap on socioeconomic determinants of oral health among older persons is that socioeconomic indicators, like employment status, have essentially been problematized and measured using a cross-sectional approach. Based on a life course approach, and using data from a population-representative, face-to-face and longitudinal-retrospective survey focused on older people in Chile (N = 802), we reconstructed representative types of individual employment trajectories and measured their association with different oral health indicators in old age. Our results show that employment trajectories characterized by continuous, formal, full-time employment have a protective effect for multiple oral health indicators among older people. Our study demonstrates the need for public policies on oral health in old age to incorporate a life course approach and to consider the negative impact of constantly working in informal employment or being out of the labor market permanently, particularly in countries like Chile where temporary and informal employment has risen steadily.

ВИКОРИСТАННЯ ХАКАТОН-ЕКОСИСТЕМИ ДЛЯ ФОРСАЙТУ ЗАЙНЯТОСТІ МОЛОДІ: МАСШТАБИ, СТРУКТУРА ТА ФУНКЦІЇ

This article is an attempt to explore the opportunities of using the Hackathon ecosystem tools to perform a quality forecasting of a wide range of youth employment issues. It is observed that despite vast experience of psychological training in higher education institutions based on the transformation of self-awareness, shaping professional perceptions related to changes in professional knowledge of professional occupation as it is, its object, professional community, etc., modern University realia lack targeted management efforts towards developing job-related skills as well as comprehensive assessment of their changing trends in the process of professional enhancement of students’ self-consciousness. At best, specific good practice of individual specialists is used, often without its interpretation by teachers and psychologists and beyond the scope of systemic analysis of the research issues. All this challenges an impetus to further studies on developing professional self-awareness of future specialists and encourages active implementation of the Hackathon ecosystem tools to render a foresight on youth secondary employment and self-employment at the level of University as well as in a regional setting. To attain the research agenda, the study employed the following general and special research methods: a system analysis method, an analytical grouping technique, comparative analysis, and dynamic and graph series construction. To summarise the research outcomes and to prepare a proposal draft on the opportunities to use the Hackathon ecosystem for offering a foresight on youth secondary employment and self-employment, the methods of abstract logical analysis and content analysis were used. Kyiv National University of Technologies and Design was chosen as the basis for this study. A questionnaire was chosen as a method of sociological research on student secondary employment. As a research toolkit, two questionnaires were developed: for students and for graduates. The study suggests using the Hackathon ecosystem to perform a foresight on student secondary employment and self-employment as a model to promote professional socialization of Ukrainian youth. According to the research findings, it is argued that there are three trajectories of student secondary employment: spontaneously formed (a good high paying job offered by chance), planned (targeted search for secondary employment according to the study major to gain professional competencies and work experience) and forced (employment to improve or maintain financial and economic well-being, usually beyond the education profile). An emphasis is put that secondary employment for Ukrainian students is not only the way to gain work experience and an extra pay opportunity but also an instrument of student professionalization. It is concluded that the terms and nature of secondary employment affect the professionalization effectiveness where gaining work experience, building professional contacts and employment prospects after graduation are viewed as a benefit for a wider student youth involvement in secondary employment.

Gendered Pathways: Employment Behavior among Family-Based and Skill-Based Immigrants in the United States

The United States is the only country to admit the majority of its immigrants on the basis of kinship ties. Although policy makers typically view family migration as less favorable and assume that family immigrants do not contribute to the U.S. economy, this argument is oversimplified and ignores the role of gender and the various ways that family immigration works. This study captures the multiple aspects of immigrants’ entry visas and its intersection with gender to examine the employment behavior of college-educated immigrant men and women who arrived in the United States via several family-based and skill-based categories. Using nationally representative data from 2010, 2013, and 2015 National Survey of College Graduates, the author finds that immigrants’ initial entry pathways into the United States continue to stratify their employment behavior and trajectories, especially for immigrant women. The conditions of family-sponsored immigration matter; temporary migration as a spouse is negatively associated with immigrant women’s employment but not permanent family migration.

Formation of university graduates employment culture

Introduction. Successful employment of university graduates is necessary for the productive solution of socio-economic problems of modern society. It is a particularly urgent task in the context of the global economic crisis and the significant changes of labor and employment area caused by it. Many students are not able to get a job, which means a significant lack of qualified specialists with higher education, who are strategic resources for the progressive development of society. This article aims to develop and give scientific justification for the extracurricular program of the Formation of University Graduates Employment Culture based on a modular approach. Materials and methods. The study involved 564 senior students of Russian universities (bachelor’s degree, master’s degree). Online survey was conducted to identify problem areas and prospects for employment. The parameters and characteristics of the formation of student’s employment culture are diagnosed using a set of valid diagnostic techniques. The reliability of the data obtained was checked using the Pearson’s chi-squared (χ2) test. Results. The author’s program for the formation of university graduates' employment culture was developed in the course of the study. The essence of the program is the development of students’ skills of job search, self-presentation, self-promotion, self-image, CV writing, effective communication, teamwork, creative problem solving, forecasting the trajectory of employment after graduation. A significant increase in the formation of student’s employment culture level was recorded as a result of the program implementation in the experimental group (χ2emp = 26.554) compared with the students of the control group who did not show positive dynamics in the level of the measured personal characteristics (χ2emp = 0.334) during the experimental work. Discussion and conclusion. The study has resulted that the effectiveness of the formation of university graduates' employment culture increases with the use of modular structuring for extracurricular programs (communicative, facilitation, socio-legal, administrative, psychological and pedagogical, project, information and interactive modules).

Education and Employment Trajectories in NEPS-ADIAB: The Survey Data of the National Educational Panel Study Linked to Administrative Data of the Institute for Employment Research

Abstract NEPS-ADIAB is a large-scale data product from Germany that provides a unique source for the empirical analysis of life course research questions. It is jointly administered by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories. NEPS-ADIAB includes survey data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and administrative data from the IAB, combined at the individual level using a record linkage procedure. While the NEPS data cover issues such as educational trajectories and decisions, competencies and skills, learning environments, attitudes, etc., the administrative data consist of detailed employment histories dating back to 1975, plus extensive information on establishments. The linkage of both data collections results in a considerable research potential. NEPS-ADIAB is particularly suitable for analyses of the nexus between educational and employment careers, short- and long-term returns to education, transitions from school to vocational training and working life, adult education and lifelong learning, as well as discontinuities in professional careers due to parenthood or unemployment. Contextual characteristics about establishments as well as geographic indicators can additionally be taken into account. The regularly updated and expanded NEPS-ADIAB data are accessible to the entire scientific community free of charge via on-site and remote access.

Late Working Life Patterns in Sweden

Late working life patterns differ across different social groups and birth cohorts. The mechanisms of these participation differences and role of working life policies can be understood better by using additional working life indicators and historical perspective. This paper investigates how late working life patterns of different age, gender, education groups and birth cohorts are structured in Sweden using participation, employment type, employment break and exit trajectories of different groups. Using Swedish National Registry Data, employment trajectories of the age groups of 60-68 of the birth cohorts 1930, 1935, 1940, 1945 and 1950 are followed. Results show that for all birth cohorts, participation is higher for younger age groups, men and higher educated; leaving the working life before 61 is more common among primary educated; changing employment type in late working life is observed more among higher educated men and usage of sickness compensation is higher among primary educated and women. However, the peak age that individuals exit, and experience employment breaks differs over the years. In addition, although higher educated individuals have lower shares in usage of unemployment and sickness compensation for all birth cohorts, the structure of benefits usage of the other education and gender groups change over the years. Overall, results give important insights how changes in working life policies affect working life patterns of different groups over the years.

The association between unemployment trajectories and alcohol consumption patterns. Evidence from a large prospective cohort in The Netherlands.

Unemployment is expected to influence alcohol consumption, but studies show mixed results, partly because most studies concentrate on current employment status. However, unemployment could be particularly consequential if it is part of a trajectory of employment precariousness. Moreover, the association between unemployment and alcohol consumption may not be homogeneous across the population, but differ by subgroups (e.g. socioeconomic status). This study longitudinally analyses the association between different employment trajectories and alcohol consumption, and examines if the association is moderated by socioeconomic status (SES), partner status, age and gender. Four waves of data of the Lifelines Cohort study are used. Sample consists of individuals from 18-50 years old, active in the labor market (n = 104,766) from the northern provinces of the Netherlands. Employment trajectories are defined by employment status in each wave, duration of unemployment, and number of exposures to unemployment. Drinking patterns are divided into "abstainers", "moderate drinking" (<1.5 drinks/day), "heavy drinking" (≥1.5 drinks/day) and "binge drinking" (≥5 drinks/occasion; 4 for women). The associations are estimated with multinomial logistic regression models. Results show that recent, long-term unemployment (≥ 6 months) is associated with higher rates of heavy drinking (RRR = 1.26 [95 % CI 1.03-1.54]), whereas short-term unemployment does not show any association with the outcome. Being continuously unemployed throughout the observation period shows a strong association with binge drinking (RRR = 1.43 [95 % CI 1.06-1.93]), as well as reporting 2 or more long unemployment spells (RRR = 1.49 [95 % CI 1.21-1.83]). The group of abstainers (77.95 % women) have significantly lower SES, and poorer health than their peers. For some individuals, recent unemployment increases the likelihood for abstinence (RRR = 1.23 [95 % CI 1.00-1.51]). Evidence suggests that length of unemployment is key in order to grasp its effects in terms of changing drinking patterns.

Returning to work after a sickness absence due to cancer: a cohort study of salaried workers in Catalonia (Spain)

Cancer incidence and survival rates have increased in the last decades and as a result, the number of working age people diagnosed with cancer who return to work. In this study the probability of accumulating days of employment and employment participation trajectories (EPTs) in a sample of salaried workers in Catalonia (Spain) who had a sickness absence (SA) due to cancer were compared to salaried workers with SA due to other diagnoses or without SA. Each individual with SA due to cancer between 2012 and 2015 was matched by age, sex, and onset of time at risk to a worker with SA due to other diagnoses and another worker without SA. Accumulated days of employment were measured, and negative binomial models were applied to assess differences between comparison groups. Latent class models were applied to identify EPTs and multinomial regression models to analyse the probability of belonging to one EPT of each group. Men and women without SA or with SA due to other diagnoses had at least a 9% higher probability of continuing in employment compared to workers who had a SA due to cancer, especially among men without SA (adjusted IRR 1.27, 95% CI 1.06‒1.53). Men without SA had the highest probability of having high stable EPT compared to workers who had a SA due to cancer (adjusted RRR 3.21, 95% CI 1.87‒5.50). Even though workers with SA due to cancer continue working afterwards, they do it less often than matched controls and with a less stable employment trajectory. Health and social protection systems should guaranty cancer survivors the opportunity to continue voluntary participation in the labour market.

Employment trajectories among those treated for alcohol use disorder: A register-based cohort study.

Employment during and following treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD) is important for the individual's health and well-being and for reducing the societal costs associated with benefit payments. Nonetheless, this is an under-researched topic. This study aimed to identify trajectories of labour force participation among people enrolled in AUD treatment and describe the characteristics of those following contrasting pathways. Using trajectory analysis, we modelled employment trajectory groups among AUD patients during the year of treatment entry and the 4 subsequent years, applying Norwegian longitudinal register data. Norway. Patients who entered treatment with AUD as the primary diagnosis during 2009 and 2010 (9000 patients, age 20-61 years). The outcome variable 'labour force attachment' was measured as being in full-time employment, partly employed, on temporary welfare benefits or on permanent disability pension. Predictors were age, gender, education and comorbid mental health and drug use disorders. We distinguished six employment trajectories among AUD patients: 15.8% were on permanent disability pension throughout, 8.7% exited the labour force on permanent disability pension during the observation period, 32.1% had a medium attachment throughout follow-up, and 9.2% had a decreasing attachment; 23.3% had a high labour force attachment throughout, and 10.9% experienced increasing attachment. High attachment throughout was negatively associated with being female (P < 0.001), having lower educational attainment (P < 0.001), and having comorbid mental health (P < 0.001) and drug use disorders (P < 0.001). Norwegian patients treated for alcohol use disorder in 2009 and 2010 followed six employment trajectories during the 5 years following treatment entry and had lower labour force participation than the general population. Nearly a quarter had a high labour force attachment throughout treatment, which was positively associated with being male, having higher educational attainment and having fewer comorbid mental health and drug use disorders.

The Interplay Between the Early Work and Family Trajectories of Young Adult Women Born in West Germany: Differences by Parental Origins

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP), this paper employs sequence analysis to identify “typical” early (observation window limited to ages 15 to 30) employment and family formation trajectories among female second-generation migrants in Germany. For the employment domain of the life course, four types of employment trajectories were identified according to their modal states: “long education,” “full-time employment,” “part-time employment,” and “non-employment.” For the family domain of the life course, three types of family trajectories were identified: “postponement of family formation,” “early family formation,” and “early single motherhood.” For the analysis on cluster affiliation, a multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate how parental origin relates to jointly determined employment and family trajectories. As expected, the descriptive results showed that trajectories of low labor market participation are highly related to trajectories of early family formation. The categorization by parental origins shows that there were few differences in the trajectories of most native and G2 women groups. One pattern that stood out was that compared to other origin groups, G2 women of Turkish parental origin were more likely to be on an early family formation path, and they were more likely to be on a path with multiple non-employment spells. In the modeling strategy, the remaining differences in the women’s patterns were partially explained by the differences in their socioeconomic backgrounds (compulsory school track and the father’s professional degree) and their maternal employment role models (the mother’s employment when the woman was age 15).

Couples’ Life Courses and Women’s Income in Later Life: A Multichannel Sequence Analysis of Linked Lives in Germany

We examine how the life courses of couples in East and West Germany are linked to women's income in later life using multichannel sequence analysis. By applying a couple perspective, we overcome the individualistic approach in most previous research analysing women's old-age income. Detailed monthly information on spouses' employment and earnings trajectories from age 20 to 50 for the birth cohorts 1925-1965 (N = 2020) stems from SHARE-RV, a data linkage of the administrative records of the German public pension insurance with the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). We identify seven clusters of couples' life courses and link them to women's absolute individual and relative household income in later life using a cohort comparison to identify trends over time. While in older cohorts, women in male-breadwinner type clusters achieve the lowest, and those in dual-earner type couples have the highest incomes, this relationship does no longer prevail in younger cohorts. Here, we identify a polarization in dual-earner and male-breadwinner type clusters. The former increasingly diverge into successful female-breadwinner constellations and those with both partners in marginalized careers. The latter polarize between persistent male-breadwinner constellations and those in which women increase their labor market engagement.

Adverse employment histories, work stress and self-reported depression in the French CONSTANCES study.

BackgroundJob instability and disadvantaged work were shown to be associated with poor mental health, but few studies analyzed these conditions in a life course perspective. In this study, adverse employment histories are retrospectively assessed and linked to self-reported depression. Furthermore, indirect effects of later stressful psychosocial work in terms of effort-reward imbalance are investigated.MethodsWith data from the French CONSTANCES cohort study of 13 716 male and 12 767 female employees aged 45 and older, we identify adverse employment histories between age 25 and 45, focussing on job discontinuity, job instability and cumulative disadvantage. Direct effects of these conditions on self-reported depression over a period of up to 5 years are analyzed, using discrete-time logistic regression. Indirect effects of stressful work at baseline are examined.ResultsModerately elevated odds ratios of self-reported depression are observed among participants with discontinued employment histories (number of unemployment periods; years out of work for men). Effort-reward imbalance at work is consistently related to elevated risk of self-reported depression and explains parts of the association between discontinuous employment and depression.ConclusionsApplying a life course perspective to occupational health research extends current knowledge. Specifically, adverse employment histories in terms of recurrent job discontinuity are related to the risk of self-reported depression. This association is partly explained by exposure to a stressful psychosocial work environment. These results can instruct labour market policies and the development of targeted worksite interventions that address disadvantage throughout entire employment trajectories.

Adverse employment histories and allostatic load: associations over the working life

BackgroundMost studies on the health impact of occupational stress use single-point measures of stress at work. This study analyses the associations of properties of entire employment trajectories over an extended...

Is the internet the game changer? Disabled people and digital work in China

The marginalisation of disabled people in paid employment has been a longstanding issue. This article examines whether the recent proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) can change the employment challenges for disabled people. It focuses on China, where digitalisation has happened almost simultaneously with industrialisation, and where a special disability employment trajectory is developing. Based on an exploratory study of the economic activities of Chinese disabled people, the article presents three types of digital work, in which physical labour, social relations and ICTs-related knowledge are commodified. These types of work are in general loosely organised, self-managed and unprotected. They have both empowering and debilitating effects. The article thus argues that the personal use of the Internet is just an entry point to disability employment, and it will be more effective if combined with policy interventions and broader structural changes. Points of interest People with impairments often face employment difficulties and some believe technological developments, such as the internet, can provide a solution to this. In China, people with physical impairments are working on the internet to earn money. Their work forms include levelling up online games for other players, opening online shops and developing ICTs products, such as software. Working online gives disabled people a chance to get paid and develop a better feeling about self. This however has significant limitations. Policy and social support should be provided to promote online employment for disabled people.

The standardisation of the life course in 20th-century China

In most Western countries, the patterning of the individual life course had reached a high level of uniformity by the 1960s. However, since the late 1970s, indications of an inverse tendency towards destandardisation of the life course have been observed, especially regarding life transitions and status sequences linked to family and occupation. Within China, little research has been conducted to examine the standardisation/destandardisation of the life course. This study uses life history data to take a preliminary step in addressing this question, using a sample of Chinese people born between 1920 and 1969 from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. The sample is divided into five cohorts of individuals born in 1920–29, 1930–39, 1940–49, 1950–59 and 1960–69. We found that the life course of individuals in these cohorts generally shows a trend of increasing standardisation from the earliest to the most recent cohort, with the exception of the youngest cohort. There are substantively important group differences seen in the standardisation of the life course; a higher level of standardisation is seen in male and rural cohorts in the education–employment trajectories, compared to female and urban cohorts. Further, in terms of family life course, the standardisation of urban cohorts is higher than that of rural cohorts. Different domains of life course show inconsistent paces in their processes of standardisation; this can be seen manifested in the case of individuals’ education–employment trajectories, which tend to be more standardised than family life course.

Unbalanced growth in the labourscape: explaining regional employment divergence

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the role of human capital in explaining divergent employment growth within advanced economies. It adds a spatial dimension to William J. Baumol’s theory of ‘unbalanced growth’ by linking it with the concept of ‘job polarization’. We develop a theory of ‘geographical unbalanced growth’ that explains divergent employment trajectories in terms of skill restructuring. The theory is operationalized via a novel shift–share extension, which is applied to Australian data. We find evidence of ongoing regional divergence and for our proposed mechanism. The findings reinforce the importance of active policies to attract high-skilled jobs to non-metropolitan regions.

Alleviating Unemployment in South Africa: Harnessing Comparative Advantage in the Services Sector

This article reviews the trajectory of employment in South Africa before and during the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns. Thereafter, we propose measures for the alleviation of unemployment through the development of a comparative advantage in services as a response to the environment created by existing policies and multiple crises. The policy is the best response to the consequences of existing measures in place. Threats – in the form of the pandemic, advances in Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies, online retail, and the July 2021 lootings – present the need for strategic investment and further protections for this sector.