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Article
Publication date: 26 August 2014

Nina Neubecker

The purpose of this paper is to break down south-north migration along both the skill and the occupational dimension and thus to distinguish and compare several types of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to break down south-north migration along both the skill and the occupational dimension and thus to distinguish and compare several types of south-north migration and brain drain.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents south-north migration rates by occupational category at two distinct levels of disaggregation according to International Standard Classification of Occupations 1988 (ISCO-88). The data sets combine information about the labor market outcomes of immigrants in Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries around the year 2000 provided by the Database on Immigrants in OECD Countries by the OECD with employment data for the developing migrant-sending countries from the International Labour Organization.

Findings

The incidence of south-north migration was highest among Professionals, one of the two occupational categories generally requiring tertiary education, and among clerks and legislators, senior officials and managers. At the more disaggregated level, physical, mathematical and engineering science (associate) professionals, life science and health (associate) professionals, as well as other (associate) professionals exhibited significantly larger brain drain rates than teaching (associate) professionals. The data also suggest non-negligible occupation-education mismatches due to the imperfect transferability of skills acquired through formal education because south-north migrants with a university degree worked more often in occupational categories requiring less than tertiary education compared to OECD natives. The employment shares of most types of professionals and technicians and associate professionals, as well as of clerks and corporate managers were significantly smaller in the migrant-sending countries compared to the receiving countries.

Originality/value

The constructed data sets constitute the first comprehensive data sets on south-north migration by ISCO-88 major and sub-major occupational category for cross-sections of, respectively, 91 and 17 developing countries of emigration.

Book part
Publication date: 5 May 2017

Seong Won Han

This study investigates national trends in students’ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupational expectations by using Program for International Student…

Abstract

This study investigates national trends in students’ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupational expectations by using Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000, 2003, and 2006 data. The analyses in this study revealed several noteworthy national trends in STEM occupational expectations. In many countries students’ computing or engineering (CE) occupational expectations changed between PISA 2000 and PISA 2006, while students’ health service (HS) occupational expectations remained constant. In particular, many developed countries experienced downward national trends in CE occupational expectations among top performers in science. This study also found gender differences in national trends in STEM occupational expectations. In many countries boys’ CE occupational expectations decreased between PISA 2000 and PISA 2006, while girls’ occupational expectations remained unchanged in both CE and HS fields. Finally, the gender gaps in CE occupational expectations converged in many countries, but this convergence was not due to increases in CE occupational expectations among girls, but rather decreases in expectations among boys. Because one of the policy goals in many countries is to promote engagement in STEM education and occupations among students, especially academically talented students, the current findings – national declines in CE occupational expectations among top academic performers – will most likely be viewed as problematic in several countries. Future research should use data collected over longer periods to investigate whether students’ interest in STEM education and occupations increased or decreased in a variety of countries, and whether these patterns varied by student characteristics and performance levels. Moreover, future research must focus on factors that can explain the national trends in student interest in STEM education and occupations.

Details

The Impact of the OECD on Education Worldwide
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-539-3

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 18 November 2015

Joanna Sikora

Young men and women dominate different niches of science education in Australia, but how this divide varies between university and post-secondary vocational education and training…

Abstract

Young men and women dominate different niches of science education in Australia, but how this divide varies between university and post-secondary vocational education and training (VET) is not well understood. Therefore, I compare courses in both sectors to assess if the male–female gap at later stages of education mirrors adolescent career plans and subject choices made in secondary school. Multinomial logistic regressions estimated on data from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth (Y06) illustrate the extent to which the gender divides in secondary and post-secondary education correspond with one another. Y06 started with the 2006 Australian Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Each year until 2013, a nationally representative sample of youth, who were nearly 16 years old in 2006, reported their schooling and work experiences. I find that Australian women rarely specialise in physics, engineering and technology (PET); in contrast, they dominate the life sciences. While post-secondary science is segregated by gender everywhere, the disparity within VET is much deeper due to a large share of PET enrolments. VET students, who come from modest socio-economic backgrounds and have less academic success at school, learn in more segregated environments than their university peers. This analysis suggests that gender divides will be particularly hard to close within post-secondary VET, even if schools succeed in eradicating gender differentials in students’ career aspirations, science performance, self-concept and choices of science subjects.

Details

Gender Segregation in Vocational Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-347-1

Article
Publication date: 19 June 2020

Jutta Viinikainen, Petri Böckerman, Marko Elovainio, Christian Hakulinen, Mirka Hintsanen, Mika Kähönen, Jaakko Pehkonen, Laura Pulkki-Råback, Olli Raitakari and Liisa Keltikangas-Järvinen

A prominent labour market feature in recent decades has been the increase in abstract and service jobs, while the demand for routine work has declined. This article examines…

Abstract

Purpose

A prominent labour market feature in recent decades has been the increase in abstract and service jobs, while the demand for routine work has declined. This article examines whether the components of Type A behaviour predict workers' selection into non-routine abstract, non-routine service and routine jobs.

Design/methodology/approach

Building on the work by Barrick et al. (2013), this article first presents how the theory of purposeful work behaviour can be used to explain how individuals with different levels of Type A components sort into abstract, service and routine jobs. Then, using longitudinal data, it examines whether the components of Type A behaviour predict occupational sorting. Estimations were performed based on the linear regression method.

Findings

The results show that the Type A dimension “leadership” was associated with a higher level of abstract and service job tasks in occupation. High eagerness-energy and responsibility were also positively linked with occupation's level of abstract tasks. These results suggest that workers sort into jobs that allow them to pursue higher-order implicit goals.

Originality/value

Job market polarisation towards low-routine jobs has had a pervasive influence on the labour market during the past few decades. Based on high-quality data that combine prime working-age register information on occupational attainment with information about personality characteristics, the findings contribute to our knowledge of how personality characteristics contribute to occupational sorting in terms of this important job aspect.

Details

Employee Relations: The International Journal, vol. 42 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 November 2018

Kea Tijdens, Miroslav Beblavý and Anna Thum-Thysen

The purpose of this paper is to overcome the problems that skill mismatch cannot be measured directly and that demand side data are lacking. It relates demand and supply side…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to overcome the problems that skill mismatch cannot be measured directly and that demand side data are lacking. It relates demand and supply side characteristics by aggregating data from jobs ads and jobholders into occupations. For these occupations skill mismatch is investigated by focussing on demand and supply ratios, attained vis-à-vis required skills and vacancies’ skill requirements in relation to the demand-supply ratios.

Design/methodology/approach

Vacancy data from the EURES job portal and jobholder data from WageIndicator web-survey were aggregated by ISCO 4-digit occupations and merged in a database with 279 occupations for Czech Republic, being the only European country with disaggregated occupational data, coded educational data, and sufficient numbers of observations.

Findings

One fourth of occupations are in excessive demand and one third in excessive supply. The workforce is overeducated compared to the vacancies’ requirements. A high demand correlates with lower educational requirements. At lower occupational skill levels requirements are more condensed, but attainments less so. At higher skill levels, requirements are less condensed, but attainments more so. Educational requirements are lower for high demand occupations.

Research limitations/implications

Using educational levels is a limited proxy for multidimensional skills. Higher educated jobholders are overrepresented.

Practical implications

In Europe labour market mismatches worry policy makers and Public Employment Services alike.

Originality/value

The authors study is the first for Europe to explore such a granulated approach of skill mismatch.

Book part
Publication date: 18 November 2015

Steffen Hillmert

Gender-specific segregation of occupations has remained a typical characteristic of contemporary labour markets. From an individual perspective, (gender-)specific positioning in…

Abstract

Gender-specific segregation of occupations has remained a typical characteristic of contemporary labour markets. From an individual perspective, (gender-)specific positioning in the labour market is the result of longer-term developments over the life course; these may be influenced by specific macro-level conditions. For example, education and training systems may differ in the information they provide for individual educational and occupational decisions and in the biographical consequences of these decisions. This chapter analyses the potential relevance of education and training systems for gender-specific occupational expectations at a comparatively young age. The empirical analyses use data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000, 2003 and 2006 and from the European Labour Force Survey (ELFS), comparing occupational gender segregation in early individual expectations and in the labour force across 22 European countries. In a multi-level analysis, expectations are related to both individual-level predictors and characteristics of education and training systems. The results show that anticipated choices of gender-specific occupations are loosely related to characteristics of education and training systems. In particular, the degree of vocational enrolment seems to enforce the level of segregation. However, these associations are group-specific and rather small. Education and training systems also tend to have different consequences for the expectations of young women and young men. Gender segregation already exists at early biographical stages, but it is often modified by later adaptation and the selective behaviour of institutions and employers.

Details

Gender Segregation in Vocational Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-347-1

Book part
Publication date: 18 November 2015

Moris Triventi, Jan Skopek, Yuliya Kosyakova, Sandra Buchholz and Hans-Peter Blossfeld

This chapter provides an overview of the results from a cross-nationally comparative project analysing gender differences and inequalities at labour market entry. Women’s relative…

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the results from a cross-nationally comparative project analysing gender differences and inequalities at labour market entry. Women’s relative gains in educational attainment and the expansion of the service sector suggest that gender inequalities in occupational returns are diminishing or even reversing. In assessing gender differences at labour market entry, we look at a phase of the life course when women’s family roles are still of minor importance. Conceptually, we distinguish between horizontal segregation and inequalities in vertical outcomes. The project was based on 13 in-depth case studies contributed by a network of scholars analysing countries with different institutional, socio-economic and cultural settings. The findings demonstrate that occupational gender segregation is still relatively marked among recent cohorts, though it is slightly decreasing over time in several countries. In terms of vertical inequalities, the case studies consistently revealed that while women enter more prestigious jobs than men in most countries, there is a female disadvantage in economic returns among recent labour market entrants. In addition, we found mixed evidence on the variations of gender equality at labour market entry across countries with different institutional characteristics.

Details

Gender Segregation in Vocational Education
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-347-1

Article
Publication date: 6 May 2014

Ayla Ogus Binatli and Sacit Hadi Akdede

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the social status of migrants in a culturally liberal and historically cosmopolitan port city in Turkey.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the social status of migrants in a culturally liberal and historically cosmopolitan port city in Turkey.

Design/methodology/approach

A novel data set from the Izmir Labor Market Household Survey is used. Social status is measured by occupational status, wages, and education. In addition, parents’ education, as well as, duration of unemployment for migrants is analyzed. Occupational status and education analyzes are based on ordered probit models. The probability that an individual with given characteristics will have an uneducated parent is estimated with a probit model. Weibull duration model is employed for the unemployment duration.

Findings

Migrants in Izmir are likely to have occupations that claim a lower status. Migrants have higher wages so migrants are taking jobs of lower status but higher pay. The probability of exiting unemployment for migrants is higher, that is the duration of unemployment for migrants is shorter. Male have higher education levels and receive higher wages. Parents’ education for migrants is lower in general. Female migrants have lower education levels than natives, male or female, and do not receive higher wages than female natives in the labor market. The paper concludes that the social status of migrant women is definitely lower than natives, male or female, and male migrants. Evidence on the social status of migrant men also points to a disadvantage as even though the male migrant is more educated on average, he is likely to hold an occupation of lower status.

Originality/value

This paper employs a novel data set to investigate the social status of migrants vs natives. In addition, it undertakes a multi-dimensional econometric analyses of social status. Unemployment has not been included in econometric analysis of social status before.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 35 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2014

Žilvinas Martinaitis

“Skills” is a central concept in a number of academic and policy debates. Yet measurement of skills of labour force remains highly problematic. The dominant approach uses signals…

Abstract

Purpose

“Skills” is a central concept in a number of academic and policy debates. Yet measurement of skills of labour force remains highly problematic. The dominant approach uses signals of individual capacities (e.g. level of education) as a proxy of skills. This paper develops and tests a methodology for more direct measurement of skills by focusing on how individuals perform their tasks rather than what they could be capable of doing.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed theoretical framework assumes that skills used at workplace represent the skills an individual has. This is captured by the analysis of how tasks are performed. Level of skills-in-use is measured at three dimensions: degree of uncertainty, level of autonomy and opportunities for continuous skill-building. Empirical analysis utilises survey data on 29 European countries.

Findings

First, the paper proposes a novel methodology for measuring skills. Second, it uses data from European Working Conditions Survey to measure skills of workforce in 29 European countries.

Research limitations/implications

The depth of indicators used for measurement of skills could be further expanded, if additional questions could be inserted in the pan-European surveys.

Practical implications

Findings suggest that the quality of employment domain (tasks, technologies, work organisation, etc.) could be as important as formal education systems in upgrading the skills of labour force.

Originality/value

The paper proposes and tests a methodology for more direct measurement of skills than the ones previously employed in academic and policy debates.

Details

European Journal of Training and Development, vol. 38 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-9012

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 28 December 2018

Ana Suárez Álvarez and Ana Jesús López Menéndez

The aim of this chapter is to shed some light on the behavior of Income Inequality and Inequality of Opportunity over time for 26 European countries. The analysis is carried out…

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to shed some light on the behavior of Income Inequality and Inequality of Opportunity over time for 26 European countries. The analysis is carried out using microdata collected by the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), which incorporates a wide variety of personal harmonized variables, allowing comparability between countries. The availability of this database for years 2004 and 2010 is particularly relevant to assess changes over time in the main inequality indices and the contribution of circumstances to inequality of opportunity. Furthermore, a bootstrap estimation is performed with the aim of testing whether the differences between both years are statistically significant.

Details

Inequality, Taxation and Intergenerational Transmission
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-458-9

Keywords

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