Patterns of integration

This paper compares the distribution of jobs by complexity and firms' willingness to hire low‐educated labour for jobs of varying complexity in Norway, Italy and Hungary. In investigating how unqualified workers can cope with complex jobs, it compares their involvement in various forms of post‐school skills formation. The countries are also compared in terms of the proportion of small businesses, which, it is assumed, manage and tolerate the losses from functional illiteracy more than large firms do. Unskilled Norwegians benefit from synergies that exist between work in complex jobs, post‐school skills formation and civil integration. Italy has an abundant supply of simple jobs and its small businesses employ unqualified workers even in complex jobs. Inadequate post‐school skills formation and the lack of a sizeable small‐business sector set limits on the inclusion of low‐educated Hungarians.