Trends in occupational sex segregation in Hong Kong

This study investigates the recent trends in occupational sex segregation in Hong Kong. It employs census data for 1991 and 1996 on the occupational distribution by sex to construct several segregation indexes. Based on these indexes, the relative impacts of the changes in the employment structure and in the gender composition of jobs are evaluated. The concentration of men and women in the occupational structure is also examined. It is found that economic restructuring in Hong Kong has brought about subtle changes in the pattern of occupational sex segregation over time. Specifically, the growth of managerial and professional occupations has facilitated the entry of young and better-educated women into these prestigious jobs. The expansion of low-level service jobs has also absorbed a great number of middle-aged women moving from the declining manufacturing sector. Finally, some policy and organizational implications are discussed.     

Why so fed up and footloose in IT? Spelling out the associations between occupation and overall job satisfaction shown by WERS 2004

Analysis of the Workplace Employment Relations Survey 2004 employee data shows striking differences in levels of overall job satisfaction among occupational groups. The examination is based on the 81 Minor Occupation groupings in UK Standard Occupational Classification 2000 classification. Taking a possible specific occupational effect possibly conditioned by resonance effects, as a theoretical point of departure, multivariate analysis is used to restate apparent occupational effect as occupationally bundled individual‐level variables and workplace influences—a process seen as exchanging nominal‐level measurement (names of occupations) with theoretical variables. Although 13 minor occupational groups retain statistically significant independent influence after the statistical treatment, these effects are small. Detailed illustration and specification of bundling effects and further examination of their sources take information and communications technology and communication professionals as their point of reference.     

Deregulating Overtime Hours Restrictions on Women and its Effects on Female Employment: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Japan

This paper provides novel evidence on the effect of deregulating overtime hours restrictions on women by using the 1985 Amendments to the Labour Standards Act (LSA) in Japan as a natural experiment. The original LSA of 1947 prohibited women from working overtime exceeding two hours a day; six hours a week; and 150 hours a year. The 1985 Amendments exempted a variety of occupations and industries from such an overtime restriction on women. Applying a difference‐in‐difference model to census data, we find causal evidence pointing to the positive effect of this particular piece of labour market deregulation on the proportion of female employment. We then carry out a series of sensitivity analyses to ensure the robustness of our finding. Especially, we conduct a falsification test and an event study to show that our causal inference is not threatened by the differential pretreatment trends. Finally, we use quantile regressions and find that for jobs with more rapidly growing proportion of female employment, the effect of the exemption from the overtime work restriction on women is larger.     

Productivity Growth,Import Leakage and Employment Growth in Puerto Rico, 1967–87

Using Puerto Rican input–output data that cover the period 1967–87, we find that employment growth was led primarily by a rapid increase in final output—5.1% per year—although labor productivity growth was also substantial, at 3.7% per year. Import leakages also fell over this period, but had little impact on employment growth. Local absorption was more successful than exports in generating new jobs. Employment generated by local absorption grew by 35% and that from exports by 29%, even though exports increased almost four-fold, while local absorption only doubled. The difference reflects the greater labor intensity of industries that supply local absorption. There was also a notable shift in the occupational structure toward white-collar employment and away from blue-collar jobs. The primary reason for this was the shift in the composition of final demand toward industries that rely heavily on white-collar workers. A secondary reason was a bias in technological change, which favored white-collar over blue-collar workers.     

Inter-city wage differentials and intra-city workplace centralization

We explore the interaction of inter-city and intra-city wage differentials by occupation. The paper makes two main contributions. 1) We construct an occupation-specific index of workplace centralization that accounts for the difference between average employment density from the perspective of employees in each occupation and average employment density from the perspective of all employees. 2) We provide empirical evidence that relative wages of central to non-central occupations increase with city size, or equivalently, the elasticity of wages with respect to city size increases with occupational centrality. We conjecture that this empirical regularity arises because, as city size increases, workers in more central occupations face an increasingly less desirable locus of housing prices and commuting times relative to workers who have jobs in residential areas. The results are robust to the inclusion of individual-specific human capital variables and city-specific fixed effects.     

Noncognitive skills, occupational attainment, and relative wages

This paper examines whether men's and women's noncognitive skills influence their occupational attainment and, if so, whether this contributes to the disparity in their relative wages. We find that noncognitive skills have a substantial effect on the probability of employment in many, though not all, occupations in ways that differ by gender. Consequently, men and women with similar noncognitive skills enter occupations at very different rates. Women, however, have lower wages on average not because they work in different occupations than men do, but rather because they earn less than their male colleagues employed in the same occupation. On balance, women's noncognitive skills give them a slight wage advantage. Finally, we find that accounting for the endogeneity of occupational attainment more than halves the proportion of the overall gender wage gap that is unexplained.     

A structural approach to projecting the occupational profile: Some results with Indian data

Projecting demand for various occupations on the assumption that their shares will remain fixed in the total employment over the entire period of projection might not be empirically justifiable. Further, it overlooks the complementarity and substitution possibilities between different occupations. An attempt is made in this paper to relax some of these unrealistic assumptions. Using a first-order Markov chain relationship between vectors of occupational proportions, we demonstrate, with Indian data, that this method may be used as a first approximation to the evolution of occupational structure at the aggregate level. An added justification of this formulation—in particular for the developing economies—is its modest data requirements. It may, however, be noted that a complete adjustment mechanism visualized here for the occupational structure is best viewed as a starting point for a more general formulation posited on a partial adjustment mechanism which allows for the interoccupational differences in their educational and training requirements.     

Contingent work in the UK and Sweden: evidence from the construction industry

This article explores the use of contingent forms of employment in two diverse country contexts—the UK and Sweden—and investigates the influence of changing regulatory and economic conditions over a period that covers the current economic downturn. Drawing on quantitative and qualitative data for the construction sector, the article addresses three questions. How do employers balance their flexibility preferences in the context of regulatory constraints? How has the global recession influenced employer behaviour? And to what extent can the Swedish experience be explained by convergence on other country models? While the UK employment model encourages employers to externalise the risk of unpredictable market conditions through the use of contingent contracts, the more supportive welfare regime in Sweden underpins a resilient preference of employers for open‐ended employment contracts. Ongoing changes in labour market regulation pose challenges to the strongly regulated Swedish model, yet we find only a shared direction of travel with the UK rather than convergence in the use of contingent employment.     

Pharmaceutical drug misuse: are industry of employment and occupation risk factors?

We explore the misuse of pharmaceutical drugs in the Australian workforce, focusing on whether any differences exist between workers in particular industries or occupations. In terms of industry, being employed in hospitality is positively associated with pharmaceutical drug misuse, while being employed in finance, insurance and retail is inversely related. In terms of occupation, we find that being a labourer is positively related to misuse of pharmaceutical drugs, while being employed in managerial, professional, sales, clerical or administrative roles is associated with a lower tendency. Further analysis of occupational effects revealed that being in a blue‐collar occupation, as a whole, is positively related to pharmaceutical drug misuse relative to white‐collar employment. Moreover, being employed in higher status roles is associated with a lower likelihood of such behaviour. Our findings imply that particular workplace pressures, cultural norms and/or working conditions might be influential factors behind workers' drug misuse.     

Involuntary part‐time workers in Britain: evidence from the labour force survey

Part‐time employment is widely considered functional for the economy, with both benign and detrimental implications for employees. However, specific analyses of involuntary part‐time work in Britain are surprisingly absent from the flexibility debate, and workers in such positions remain largely under‐researched. This article explores involuntary part‐time employment in relation to socio‐economic circumstances. We analyse Labour Force Survey data, using logistic regression modelling to identify the segments of workers filling part‐time jobs involuntarily. The results suggest that involuntariness for part‐time jobs is affected by a range of demographic and work‐related characteristics considered. Being a couple with dependent children, for example, reduces the likelihood of involuntariness among female part‐time employees whereas lower educational and occupational levels imply a higher involuntariness across both sexes.     

Employed and Unemployed Job Seekers and the Business Cycle

The job search literature suggests that on‐the‐job search reduces the probability of un employed people finding jobs. However, there is little evidence that employed and unemployed job seekers are similar or apply for the same jobs. We compare employed and unemployed job seekers in their individual characteristics, preferences over working hours, job‐search strategies and employment histories, and identify how differences vary over the business cycle. We find systematic differences which persist over the business cycle. Our results are consistent with a segmented labour market in which employed and unemployed job seekers are unlikely to directly compete with each other for jobs.     

Industrial policy and employment in the UK: evidence from the pharmaceutical sector

Employment scholars have a longstanding interest in the potential for an active industrial policy to shift the UK economy to a high‐wage, high‐skill trajectory. This article addresses this topic by examining policy, performance and employment in the UK pharmaceutical sector, which has historically benefited from substantial government assistance. While weaknesses are apparent, overall the industrial policy context has supported the performance of the UK sector, underpinning a sizable number of highly skilled and paid jobs. The findings demonstrate the potential of an active industrial policy to facilitate a shift to a higher skills trajectory. Wider considerations of relevance and policy recommendations are discussed.     

Work, Free Will and Law

American law conceptualizes work as an exercise of free will, as a choice rather than as a right. Work law is dominated by a freedom of contract analysis in which occupations, jobs, union representation, working conditions, and exit are seen as freely chosen. New Deal-era regulatory regimes are undermined by the pervasive influence of the work-as-free-will framework. Vast spheres of worker activity that benefit employers yet occur within the coercive context of an employment regime in which jobs are a choice and a privilege rather than a right are left unregulated. Worker agency is reduced as workers conform their aspirations, expectations and demands for workplace justice to the confines of the job as defined by the employer. Few question the prevailing meaning of work as freedom because it is consonant with our cultural commitment to the American Dream—but we should.     

Temporary Help Agencies and Occupational Mobility*

This paper analyses the effects of Temporary Help Agencies (THA) on occupational mobility by performing an empirical comparison of the job‐to‐job upgrading chances of agency and regular (non‐agency) workers in Spain. We estimate a switching regression model to allow for self‐selection into agency work because of, for instance, more motivated workers being more likely to search for jobs through a THA. We find evidence in favour of the existence of self‐selection in all qualification groups considered. Concerning mobility, we find that agency workers in intermediate qualification levels are less likely to experience demotions than regular workers. THA increase the probability of high‐skilled workers achieving a permanent contract in Spain.     

HOW EFFECTIVE ARE UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT SANCTIONS? LOOKING BEYOND UNEMPLOYMENT EXIT

This paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of the effects of benefit sanctions on post‐unemployment outcomes such as post‐unemployment employment stability and earnings. We use rich register data which allow us to distinguish between a warning that a benefit reduction may take place in the near future and the actual withdrawal of unemployment benefits. Adopting a multivariate mixed proportional hazard approach to address selectivity, we find that warnings do not affect subsequent employment stability but do reduce post‐unemployment earnings. Actual benefit reductions lower the quality of post‐unemployment jobs both in terms of job duration as well as in terms of earnings. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

LABOUR DEMAND IN GERMANY BY INDUSTRIAL SECTOR,OCCUPATIONAL FIELD AND QUALIFICATION UNTIL 2025 – MODEL CALCULATIONS USING THE IAB/INFORGE MODEL

By means of a trend extrapolation of microcensus structures (undertaken by the German Federal Statistical Office) for the time period 1996–2007, the projections for labour demand by industrial sector which the IAB already has at its disposal can be transferred to demand by occupational field and subsequently by qualification level until 2025. The findings which have been claimed for some time now are upheld: production-related occupations will lose in significance, while further increases in employment particularly in occupations in the service sector are to be expected. Accordingly, the demand for personnel with a degree from a university or a university of applied sciences will go on rising, while the labour market opportunities for unskilled workers will continue to fall. However, vocational training or its academic counterparts still remain the dominant form of training in Germany. A continuing employment trend is to be expected here.     

A micro-level insight on trade-induced job polarization and poverty in Russia

The effect of trade liberalization on workers with different skill levels at distinct types of firms is often surmised to be heterogeneous. This paper employs a longitudinal individual-level dataset—the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS)—to study the impact of trade liberalization on the relative poverty of various groups of workers in Russia. More specifically, we use the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a quasi-natural experiment to analyze the impact of trade liberalization on workers at different skill levels and types of firms. Our analysis reveals significant trade-induced job polarization, meaning that, in the tradable sector, even though employment and wages are increasing for low-wage and the high-wage occupations, they are shrinking for mid-wage occupations, leading to a higher poverty rate for workers seeking employment in mid-wage occupations in that sector. Our results are robust to a battery of robustness checks, and they point to the crucial role of state-owned enterprises in attenuating the adverse effects of trade shocks on the welfare of workers.     

Imports,technology, and employment: Job creation or creative destruction

This study examines the employment impact of technology by using firm-level survey data for a large number of developing countries. We not only examine the impact of technology on overall employment but also investigate the effect on different types of employment, such as skilled, unskilled, temporary, and seasonal. Considering asymmetric distribution of employment, we utilize quantile regression for empirical analysis. Our findings unequivocally suggest that technology does not kill jobs. Further, we could not find any skill-biased impact of technology. Finally, results suggest that technology received through alternative sources works in combination, enhances absorptive capacity and promotes employment.     

Occupational and industrial mobility in the United States

Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and using both the original and the new series of occupation and industry codes, we investigate occupational and industrial mobility of individuals over the 1969–1980 and 1981–1993 periods in the U.S. We find that workers changed both occupations and industries more frequently in the later period. We also find that for men occupational and industrial changes are associated with lower earnings, though this effect has lessened somewhat over time; while for women the results are mixed. Our results also indicate that older and better paid men are less likely to shift occupation or industry.     

Do Inward Investors Achieve their Job Targets?*

The paper utilizes data for north‐east England over the period 1985–98 to examine if foreign‐owned start‐up plants achieve their job targets. Different models are estimated, each shedding light on the relationship between the jobs promised by plants in their initial investment and their actual employment attained. On average, it is found that the plants achieve their job targets, but larger plants fall someway short. It is argued that these plants may deliberately overstate the number of jobs, and that the employment‐creation claims of inward investors and economic development agencies should be treated with skepticism.