Are some sectors more “youth friendly” than others? Employment regimes,sectors, and gender disparities in the Great Recession

Despite national differences in youth employment, many countries share striking similarities in the uneven sectoral distribution of job opportunities for young women and men in Europe. A shift‐share analysis of European Labour Force data identifies “youth‐friendly” sectors, how this varies between countries, and how this changed during the Great Recession. This reveals how youth job opportunities were lost because the sector shrank or because employers were less likely to offer full‐time, permanent contracts. New jobs for youth were more likely to be in part‐time and temporary employment. Youth vulnerability to unemployment is contingent not only on employers' engagement with institutions shaping school‐to‐work transitions but also on gender segregation and to the fact that some sectors have been particularly fragile during the economic crisis. Future research needs to link institutional effects with employers' business strategies to understand how these shape job opportunities for young women and men.     

The Influence of Uncertain Job Location on Urban Form and the Journey to Work

Standard urban models assume residents never think about their next job. More likely, the individual value of a given home and the choice of commute length are based not only on the current job site, but also on the expectation of where future jobs will be and the likelihood of both job separations and residential moves. The first factor lessens the value of access to the present job, while the second determines the opportunity cost of moving. Both sets of factors lead to flatter rent gradients and more sprawl than predicted by standard theories. The analysis further suggests that relatively stable jobs are likely associated with relatively shorter commutes. Past studies of the regional balance of jobs and housing, of “wasteful” commuting, of differences in the length of commute by gender, and of spatial tests for discrimination in housing and local labor markets have neglected these considerations, and may yield biased results as a consequence.     

Job mobility and the gender wage gap in Italy

This paper investigates the contribution of gender differences in job mobility to the emergence of a gender wage gap in the Italian labour market. We show that over the first 10 years of labour market experience job mobility accounts for up to 30% of total log wage growth for men and only 8.3% for women, and that this difference is mainly due to differences in returns to mobility. The gender mobility gap is robust to the inclusion of individual, job and firm characteristics, to different ways of accounting for individual unobserved heterogeneity, and is mainly found for voluntary job moves. Looking at the characteristics of the jobs and the firms' workers move to, we find that moves to larger firms represent by far the main source of gender differences in returns to mobility. We offer two possible explanations for this finding; one which involves differences in bargaining behaviour and one which relates to the theory of compensating differentials.     

Job satisfaction and gender: Why are women so happy at work?

By most objective standards, women's jobs are worse than men's, yet women report higher levels of job satisfaction than do men. This paper uses a recent large-scale British survey to document the extent of this gender differential for eight measures of job satisfaction and to evaluate the proposition that identical men and women in identical jobs should be equally satisfied. Neither the different jobs that men and women do, their different work values, nor sample selection account for the gender satisfaction differential. The paper's proposed explanation appeals to the notion of relative well-being, especially relative to workers' expectations. An identical man and woman with the same jobs and expectations would indeed report identical job satisfaction, but women's expectations are argued to be lower than men's. This hypothesis is supported by the finding that the gender satisfaction differential disappears for the young, the higher-educated, professionals and those in male-dominated workplaces, for all of whom there is less likely to be a gender difference in job expectations.     

Transitions From School to Work and the Early Labour Market Experience

We consider transitions from school to work and the early market experience. The duration of post-school unemployment, wages, and job duration are estimated simultaneously. We find that individuals with higher levels ofschooling get jobs more quickly and have longer employment durations. Apprentices have shorter unemployment periods and stay longer in their jobs than others at the same educational level. Females have shorter unemployment periods and lower wages, and also stay in the first job longer. The unemployment duration and the accepted wage affect job duration positively, but the estimated covariance terms suggest unobserved factors working in the opposite direction.     

The distinctive effects of earnings determinants across different job levels

This study proposes a structural model of earnings by integrating the arguments of gender discrimination, human capital, and segmented labour markets, three of the most popular perspectives for explaining variations in income. Our analysis makes use of an effective sample of 5,005 employees in Taiwan. The results show that in low-level jobs, gender plays an important role in earnings determination; but that in higher-level jobs, human capital replaces gender as a good predictor of earnings. We therefore argue that job level is a critical determinant of earnings disparity, especially in interaction with differences in gender and human capital investment.     

The role of job assignment and human capital endowments in explaining gender differences in job performance and promotion

We test a job ladders theory of career progression within internal labor markets as developed by Lazear and Rosen (1990). The theory argues that gender promotion gaps are due to sorting of men and women into career tracks with different promotion opportunities based on ex ante quit probabilities. Analyzing US federal government employees using a dynamic unobserved panel data model, we find that job assignment is one of the strongest predictors of gender differences in promotion. We also find that women have to jump higher performance hurdles to promote across grades, but, within grades, their promotion probabilities are comparable to those of men. In this organization, women can be found in both fast- and slow-track jobs, based on their promotion history, suggesting that unobserved heterogeneity is revealed to the firm over the worker's career.     

From the invisible hand to the gladhand: Understanding a careerist orientation to work

This article explores the concept of a careerist orientation to work, which is defined as the propensity to pursue career advancement through non-performance-based means. A scale is developed to measure this concept using a sample of 227 business school alumni. Exploratory empirical data suggest that careerism is associated with consistently more negative job attitudes, a greater desire to advance and to change jobs, and more frequent promotions. Implications of a careerist orientation to work for both individual career management and organizational career development are discussed.     

Are Short‐lived Jobs Stepping Stones to Long‐Lasting Jobs?*

This article assesses whether short‐lived jobs (lasting one quarter or less and involuntarily ending in unemployment) are stepping stones to long‐lasting jobs (enduring 1 year or more) for Belgian long‐term unemployed school‐leavers. We proceed in two steps. First, we estimate labour market trajectories in a multi‐spell duration model that incorporates lagged duration and lagged occurrence dependence. Second, in a simulation we find that (fe)male school‐leavers accepting a short‐lived job are, within 2 years, 13.4 (9.5) percentage points more likely to find a long‐lasting job than in the counterfactual in which they reject short‐lived jobs.     

A note on workload-dependent due date assignment rules

For many production systems, delivery performance relative to promised job due dates is a critical evaluation criterion. Delivery performance is affected by the way in which work is dispatched on the shop floor, and also by the way the job due dates are assigned to begin with. This pape shows how information regarding congestion levels on the shop floor can be used to assign due dates to arriving jobs in such a way that the mean tardiness of jobs is decreased without increasing the average length of the promised delivery lead times.Baker and Bertrand suggested a modification of the Total Work (TWK) rule for assigning job due dates which adjusts the job flow allowance according to the level of congestion in the shop. Their method gives longer flow allowances to jobs which arrive when the system is congested. Although their modified TWK rule results in lower mean tardiness in many settings, it also generally results in a higher proportion of jobs tardy.This paper presents an alternative modification of the TWK rule which, in most cases, provides mean tardiness as low as or lower than Baker and Bertrand's rule and also results in a lower proportion of jobs tardy. The alternative rule suggested here still results in higher proportion of tardy jobs than the non-workload adjusted rule in most settings, but suggestions are made for how this problem might be addressed.     

Subsidizing low-skilled jobs in a dual labor market

We introduce a matching model that allows for classical and frictional unemployment. The labor market is dual featuring low-skilled and high-skilled workers and simple and complex jobs. Simple jobs pay a minimum wage, while wages in the complex jobs are determined by Nash bargaining. Opportunities for low-skilled workers are limited to simple jobs; while high-skilled unemployed can apply for both types of jobs, and thereby can accept to be downgraded. We analyze the outcomes of simple job subsidy policies assuming that government budget is balanced through taxes on occupied workers. We first give conditions for the existence and uniqueness of a steady-state equilibrium and we then analyze the effects of different fiscal instruments. We show that in this set-up, increasing simple job subsidies does not necessarily reduce low-skilled unemployment or unemployment spells. By introducing heterogeneous skills and possible downgrading of the high-skilled workers, we show that the effectiveness of such policies in reducing the classical unemployment is decreasing. In fact, any additional classical unemployed re-entering the job market is accompanied by an increasing number of high-skilled workers downgrading to low-skilled jobs. We calibrate the model on French labor market data. It is found that for five low-skilled workers leaving classical unemployment, two high-skilled workers are downgraded.     

Job quality in Europe

Promoting job quality and gender equality are objectives of the European Employment Strategy (EES) in spite of a downgrading of the attention given to both in the revised employment guidelines and the relaunch of the Lisbon Process. However, advances on both of these objectives may be important complements to the employment rate targets of the EES, as access to good quality jobs for both sexes is likely to help sustain higher employment rates. While the European Commission has a broad view of the concept of job quality in practice, it relies on a selection of labour market type indicators that say little about the quality of the actual jobs people do. Using data from the 2005 European Working Conditions survey, we analyse job quality along three dimensions: job content, autonomy and working conditions. We conclude that gender and occupational status, along with other job characteristics such as working time and sector, have more influence on an individual's job quality than the country or ‘national model’ they are situated in. Our results also demonstrate the value of developing indicators of job quality that are both gender sensitive and derived at the level of the job rather than the labour market in order to advance EU policy and academic debate on this topic.     

The effects of age and family constraints on gender hiring discrimination: A field experiment in the French financial sector

Using correspondence testing, we investigate whether age and family constraints have an effect on the gender gap in access to job interviews. We sent job applications from three pairs of candidates to the same job advertisements in the French financial sector between January and March 2002, focusing on low-skilled administrative or commercial jobs and high-skilled administrative or commercial jobs. Within each pair, the applicants' characteristics were similar except for gender. We compare the gender gap in access to job interviews for single and childless applicants aged 25 and 37. We find significant hiring discrimination against women aged 25 applying for high-skilled administrative jobs. Young men are preferred to young women when employers offer long-term contracts. Among single and childless applicants aged 37, we find no significant hiring discrimination against women. We then compare the gender job-access gap for applicants aged 37 who are single and childless or married with three children. We do not find significant hiring discrimination against female applicants aged 37.     

‘McJobs’, ‘good jobs’ and skills: job‐seekers' attitudes to low‐skilled service work

This article focuses on unemployed job‐seekers' attitudes towards entry‐level jobs in three areas of the service sector – retail, hospitality and call‐centre work. The article examines whether job‐seekers are reluctant to pursue these opportunities, and provides an analysis of the motives of those ruling out service work. A range of potential barriers is discussed, including the extent to which job‐seekers perceive the service economy as offering only so‐called ‘McJobs’– low‐skilled, low‐paid jobs with few opportunities for development. However, the article also focuses on perceived skills mismatches, with some job‐seekers arguably over‐qualified for entry‐level service jobs, while others consider themselves to lack the necessary ‘soft’ skills. The analysis is based on interviews with 220 unemployed people in Glasgow. The article concludes that policy action may be required to encourage job seekers to consider a broader range of vacancies and to provide tailored training in partnership with service employers. On the demand side, service employers must address the need for entry‐level positions that offer realistic salaries, decent work conditions and opportunities for progression and development.     

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.     

Loneliness,job satisfaction,and organizational commitment of migrant workers: empirical evidence from China

This study examines the relationship between loneliness, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment of migrant workers. 213 migrant workers completed the survey. This study found that migrant workers are satisfied with their jobs and are committed to their organizations. Contrary to expectation, migrant workers are not lonely. Age and gender do not have influence on loneliness or organizational commitment. Single migrant workers feel lonelier than the married migrant workers. Married and longer-tenured migrant workers are more committed to the organization. There is no significant correlation between loneliness and organizational commitment. This research also indicates that lonelier migrant workers have higher job satisfaction while job satisfaction has significant positive correlation with organization commitment. Implications include having favorable policies to improve the management and services for migrant workers, a need for regulations to safeguard the migrant workers' rights and interests, and providing favorable living arrangements.     

Deconstructing job satisfaction: Separating evaluations,beliefs and affective experiences

In this paper I argue that standard treatments of job satisfaction have inappropriately defined satisfaction as affect and in so doing have obscured the differences among three separate, if related, constructs. These key constructs are overall evaluative judgments about jobs, affective experiences at work, and beliefs about jobs. I show that clearly separating these constructs is consistent with current, basic research and theory on attitudes as well as with current research and theory on “subjective well-being” (SWB). I also argue that the separation of the constructs can produce better criterion predictions than job satisfaction has by itself, suggests new areas of research that cannot be envisioned when satisfaction and affect are treated as equivalent constructs, and requires the development of new measurement systems.     

Compensation Dispersion Between and Within Hierarchical Levels

This paper studies the dispersion around the expected compensation of workers before and after controlling for hierarchical positions in cross-section data samples. From data for Spanish managers, we find that this dispersion decreases with education and work experience before entering the current job and increases with job tenure. This finding contrasts with previous research that finds a positive association between compensation dispersion and education and work experience. We explain the new finding through a model of learning that separates compensation dispersion between jobs and within jobs (hierarchical positions). The model takes advantage of the information revealed when workers are promoted to their current hierarchical positions and allows for more robust tests of learning theories.     

Gender differences in job separation rates and employment stability: New evidence from employer-employee data

I analyze the job separation process to learn about gender differences in job separation rates and employment stability. An essential finding is that employer-employee data are required to identify gender differences in job separation probabilities because of labor market segregation. Failure to recognize this may potentially lead to statistical discrimination. Three important empirical results are obtained from the analysis. First, women have higher unconditional job separation probabilities. Second, there are no gender differences in job separation probabilities for employees working in similar workplaces. Finally, women's employment stability is relatively low because they are more likely to move from a job and into unemployment or out of the labor force, and less likely to make job-to-job transitions.     

Priority dispatching with operation due dates in a job shop

This paper investigates the effects on job shop performance of setting and attempting to enforce operation due dates for jobs. It does so by comparing via simulation the performance of priority dispatching rules when employed to enforce operation due dates versus job due dates. The results indicate that operation due dates improve every conventional measure of job shop performance.