Examining policy configurations as conditions for long-term unemployment and non-standard employment in OECD countries using fuzzy-set analysis

This paper investigates how particular configurations of institutional conditions cause high rate of long-term unemployment and non-standard employment rate for 18 OECD countries during the period of 2001–2008. The paper aims to investigate how employment protection legislation (EPL), unemployment benefit and statutory minimum wages are associated with long-term unemployment and non-standard employment. Using the fuzzy-set analysis, the paper examines how the combination of policies matters in causing long-term unemployment and/or non-standard employment. The result suggests that a low level of statutory minimum wage can lead to high levels of non-standard employment in combination with either strict EPL for permanent workers or weak EPLs for temporary workers. The long-term unemployment rate is suggested to be high when there is strict EPL for temporary workers in combination with high levels of statutory minimum wage. This paper highlights the importance of examining multiple policies as configuration.     

Employment protection reforms,employment and the incidence of temporary jobs in Europe: 1996–2001

This paper uses longitudinal data on individuals from the European Community Household Panel over the 1996–2001 period to investigate the impact of reforms of employment protection systems in nine countries on the incidence of employment and of temporary jobs for wage and salary workers. Important features of the research design include the use of individual fixed effects models as well as the inclusion of country-specific trends in the dependent variable. A robust finding is that policies making it easier to create temporary jobs on average raise the likelihood that wage and salary workers will be in temporary jobs. This effect is felt primarily when the regional unemployment rate is relatively high. However, there is no evidence that such reforms raise employment. Thus, these reforms, while touted as a way of jump-starting individuals' careers in the job market, appear rather to encourage a substitution of temporary for permanent work.     

Does revamping Japan's dual labor market matter?

This paper argues that Japan's excessive labor market duality can reduce Total Factor Productivity (TFP) due to a negative impact on non-regular workers’ effort and on firms’ incentives to train them. The paper then empirically studies the determinants of labor market duality. The main result of the paper is that the level of employment protection affects duality. In particular, a higher level of employment protection of regular workers increases duality, while a higher level of protection of temporary workers reduces it. On the basis of this result, the paper also discusses some reform options to address Japan's labor market duality.     

Employers' Flexibility and Employment Volatility

A bstract .   Previous analyses of the strong secular growth in personnel supply employment have focused primarily on the relative impacts of demand and supply factors. This industry's dramatic growth has tended to mask its high degree of volatility, which may be more useful in understanding employers' motivations for hiring temporary employees. This article examines alternative explanations for the volatility of employment in the temporary supply industry from 1972 to 2000. Using a seemingly unrelated time-series estimator, we compare the volatility of temporary employment to that of regular full-time employment. We find that quarterly changes in temporary employment are more sensitive to the business cycle than regular full-time employment are and argue that temporary employment is likely to have a number of disadvantages as a reemployment strategy during a recession, since temporary employment typically declines during that time. Additionally, employment growth during this period is better explained by employers' efforts to achieve numerical rather than wage flexibility.     

Union threat and non-union employment: A natural experiment on the use of temporary employment in British firms

This paper presents the first empirical evidence on the effect of the threat of unionisation on the use of a predominantly non-union type of employment, i.e. temporary employment. The identification strategy exploits an exogenous variation in union threat induced in the UK by new legislation enabling unions to obtain recognition even against the will of the management. The analysis finds no evidence of an effect on the probability that a firm employs fixed-term workers, and some weak evidence of a negative effect on the probability of using agency workers. Furthermore, estimates of the effect on the share of temporary employment are negative and statistically insignificant. Overall, therefore, there is no support for the hypothesis that firms under the threat of unionisation are more likely to use this type of non-union employment.     

Using a Structural‐Form Model to Analyze the Impact of Home Ownership on Unemployment Duration

It is often found that the impact of home ownership on the hazard rate for leaving unemployment is positive, indicating that home ownership helps workers to leave unemployment for a paid job. However, little emphasis has been given to how such a relationship can be explained. This paper estimates a structural‐form model that allows for self‐selection into home ownership and the risk of home owners losing their property during a spell of unemployment. We find a substantial amount of self‐selection using indirect inference based on a mixed proportional hazards‐rate model and find virtually no impact of home ownership on individual labor market performance. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relative deprivation of temporary agency workers in the public sector: The role of public service motivation and the possibility of standard employment

Although public service organisations have increasingly relied on nonstandard employees, little research has investigated their work experiences and job attitudes. This paper examines the mechanism by which temporary agency workers' experience of relative deprivation affects their organisational attachment toward their client firm in the public sector. Based on data collected from temporary help agencies working with an international airport in Korea, we found that the perceived likelihood of standard employment mediated the negative relationship of relative deprivation to organisational attachment. Moreover, the indirect relationship of relative deprivation with organisational attachment via perceived likelihood of standard employment was strong and significant among those with high public service motivation but was not significant for those with low public service motivation. We discuss the implications of this study in building a better understanding of relative deprivation and nonstandard work arrangements in the public sector.     

Learning from the alien: knowledge relationships with temporary workers in network contexts

This paper contributes to our understanding of the role of temporary workers in learning for innovation in network contexts. The strategy literature advocates that the knowledge and talent of workers is vital to competitive success yet at the same time temporary workers are becoming more prevalent, making relationships with workers more ephemeral. These shifting competitive and employment contexts make insights into learning from, and with, contractual nomads paramount. The setting is the UK television industry, where such workers are dominant. Internationally, creative industries are a prime site of networks where temporary workers are brought together for specific projects. In the television industry, a range of knowledge attachment employee relationships have been developed by firms to ‘contain’ and sustain worker contributions in terms of knowledge and talent. These relationships are identified as freelance, regular contract, golden handcuffs and invest in knowledge firm. This paper highlights the learning implications both positive and negative arising from these different ways of relating to temporary workers thereby extending our understanding of employee relationships built on mutuality.     

Are contingent jobs dead ends or stepping stones to regular jobs? Evidence from a structural estimation

The proportion of part-time, dispatch, and temporary workers has increased in many developed economies in recent years. These workers receive lower average wages and benefits, and are subject to lower employment stability. This paper analyzes the effects of initially taking such jobs on the employment careers of young workers. We build an on-and-off-the-job search model, using Japanese data to perform a structural estimation of the model parameters and simulate career paths, in order to study the effects of the initial choice of employment on the probability of having a regular job in the future and on the welfare of the worker. We find that although contingent jobs are neither stepping stones towards regular employment nor dead ends, starting a career in a contingent job has a lasting effect on the welfare of the individual in Japan.     

Unemployment risk, house price risk and the transition into home ownership in the United Kingdom

Using household panel data, this paper examines the impact of income uncertainty, in the form of unemployment risk, on home ownership in the United Kingdom. The existing literature based on cross-sectional studies finds a negative relationship between income uncertainty and home ownership. This paper utilises data on transitions into home ownership and exogenous variation in unemployment risk, avoiding the endogeneity of employment to home ownership status. It also conditions the empirical estimates on a measure of house price volatility utilising a local-level house price index to control house price risk, which might also discourage home ownership. Results show a strong role for unemployment risk in lowering the likelihood of house purchase, but no statistically significant role for house price risk.     

The impact of Greek labour market regulation on temporary employment – evidence from a survey in Thessaly,Greece

This paper uses an original data-set for 186 workplaces in Thessaly (central Greece), to study consequences of Greece's strict employment protection law (EPL) and national minimum wage for temporary employment. We find higher temporary work contract rates among workplaces that pay low wages close to the minimum. We also find that EPL ‘matters’, in particular, managers who prefer temporary contracts because temporary workers are less protected definitely employ more. Our findings thus support the view that a firm's HRM decisions regarding internal versus external allocation of tasks are influenced by labour regulation.     

A Multiple‐Group Analysis of Associations Between Emotional Exhaustion and Supervisor‐Rated Individual Performance: Temporary Versus Permanent Call‐Center Workers

This study investigates whether contract type (temporary versus permanent employment) moderates the relationship between emotional exhaustion and supervisor‐rated individual performance. Most temporary workers desire permanent employment, and this may drive them to uphold performance also when strained. This hypothesis was tested with multiple‐group analysis in a sample of 430 call‐center operators from five Portuguese organizations from different sectors. The results show that emotional exhaustion related negatively to supervisor‐rated individual performance among permanent workers, but not among temporary workers. Our conclusion is that the relationship between emotional exhaustion and supervisor‐rated individual performance is conditional upon contract type. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Labour contract regulations and workers' wellbeing: International longitudinal evidence

All industrialized countries have employment protection legislation (EPL) for permanent workers and restrictions on the use of temporary employment (RTE). The (ambiguous) effects of these on the levels of employment and unemployment have been extensively studied, but nothing is known empirically about their wellbeing implications. Using longitudinal data from the European Community Household Panel, the author conducts the first study of the link between both EPL and RTE and workers' wellbeing. The results provide evidence that both permanent and temporary employees gain from reforms that ease restrictions on temporary employment but leave firing costs for permanent workers unchanged. This finding contrasts with common claims found in the political economy literature.     

When is Contracting Preferable to Employment? An Exploration of Management and Worker Perspectives

abstract    Managers make choices regarding the types of employment structures that meet the needs of the firm, and workers make choices regarding the types of arrangement that meet their needs. Various streams of literature offer perspectives on why employment or contracting might be preferred but it is often the perspective of the firm that dominates the analysis. This kind of one-sidedness weakens our understanding of employment as a relationship . It lacks recognition of the importance of mutuality: of matching the needs of the worker with the needs of the business. This paper reports research investigating management decisions to use self-employed contractors or employees for particular jobs, and workers' decisions to seek or accept organizational employment or self-employment. Some 80 in-depth interviews were conducted with managers and workers across two industries (energy supply and engineering consultancy) with the intent of studying two groups of workers differing dramatically in skill levels. While largely confirming existing theory on the management conditions relevant to the contracting-out of work, the study identifies factors that make a contracting relationship more mutually beneficial, thus suggesting propositions for further research on worker preferences.     

Unhappy with well-being research in the temporary work context: mapping review and research agenda

Abstract

While temporary workers’ specific employment circumstances strongly suggest negative consequences for their well-being, research on temporary workers’ well-being shows serious inconsistencies. To identify possible reasons, we provide an overview of previous well-being research in the temporary work context. The mapping review shows that inconsistencies are caused both by the use of the umbrella term temporary work to describe a wider range of employment forms with divergent characteristics and the use of the buzzword well-being for various well-being indicators. In addition, the portfolio of employment-specific antecedents used is insufficient to gain a comprehensive view of temporary workers’ well-being situation. Based on these findings, we propose an agenda for future well-being research in the temporary work context. A first key implication is that analyses considering country-specific circumstances and employment-specific characteristics of particular atypical employment situations are needed. Secondly, a more comprehensive portfolio of employment-specific and individual antecedents would help with gaining deeper insights into temporary workers’ well-being situation. In addition, effects of well-being on attitudinal and behavioral outcomes should be analyzed to demonstrate the return on investment of organizations’ well-being enhancing activities. Finally, well-being oriented HR practices and their implementation in the temporary work context are part of the proposed research agenda.     

Externalizing the core: Firms' use of employment intermediaries in the information and communication technology industries

Recent research suggests that nonstandard employment relations may be a source of innovation for the firm. In this article, we analyze firms' strategic correlates and perceived benefits from using two types of employment in‐termediaries—consulting firms and temporary help agencies—in their core activities. Organizations with an innovation strategy are more likely to use consulting firms in their core activities, while organizations that compete on the basis of low cost are more apt to use temporary help agencies. Moreover, managers say that consulting firms are more likely than temporary help agencies to provide them with special competencies in their core activities. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Informal employment and the earnings of home-based home care workers in the United States

Informal employment continues to exist in parallel with formal employment among the US home-based home care workers and undermines the workers' economic security. This study examines the extent to which the earnings of the US home-based home care workers are affected by informal employment arrangements and state labour policies designed to benefit low-wage home care workers. Using a sample of 1,318 home-based home care workers from the 2017 and 2018 Annual Social and Economic Supplement of the Current Population Survey, this study found that (i) informally employed home-based home care workers had a 9% reduction in annual earnings and that (ii) their earnings were not improved by generous state minimum wages and Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights while the earnings of agency employees were. The findings highlight the importance of strong enforcement of labour standards for informally employed home care workers in the United States.     

How binding are legal limits? Transitions from temporary to permanent work in Spain

This paper studies the duration pattern of fixed-term contracts and the determinants of their conversion into permanent ones in Spain, where the share of fixed-term employment is the highest in Europe. We estimate a duration model for temporary employment, with competing risks of terminating into permanent employment versus alternative states, and flexible duration dependence. We find that conversion rates are generally below 10%. Our estimated conversion rates roughly increase with tenure, with a pronounced spike at the legal limit, when there is no legal way to retain the worker on a temporary contract. We argue that estimated differences in conversion rates across categories of workers can stem from differences in worker outside options and thus the power to credibly threat to quit temporary jobs.     

农民工服务管理一体化模式研究——基于大学生服务于农民工

本文立足大学生为社会服务的角度出发,利用他们所学相关专业知识,服务于农民工,建立"农民工之家",为这新时代的农民工解决面临的一些问题,为农民工的生活质量的提高、就业信息服务、素质的提升、农民工子女的教育等方面提供服务管理。     

Externalization of employees: thinking about going somewhere else

Externalization of employment relations was a general trend among businesses in the 1990s. As a consequence we observe an increasing use of temporary workers, outsourcing and insourcing. This paper is concerned with the consequences of externalization of employment relations from the perspective of employees. The paper is based on an in-depth empirical study of a corporate adjustment programme in a large government-owned energy producer in Sweden. The company is trying to stimulate internal mobility by means of training programmes, adjusting its workforce to changes in market demand without lay-offs. I argue that externalization of employment relations is not only a matter of temporary, administrative or geographical distance between employer and employee. Instead a complementary form - externalization of responsibility - is suggested. The results may have consequences for the understanding of human resource policies aiming at employability.