Is it Easier to Escape from Low Pay in Urban Areas? Evidence from the UK

In this paper we compare periods of low pay employment between urban and rural areas in the UK. Using the British Household Panel Survey, we estimate the probability that a period of low pay employment will end allowing for a number of possible outcomes, namely to a ‘high pay’ job, self-employment, unemployment and out of the labour force. The results show that there are statistically significant differences in the dynamics of low pay across urban and rural labour markets, particularly in terms of exits to high pay and out of the labour force. After controlling for different personal and job characteristics across markets, urban low pay durations are somewhat shorter on average, with a higher probability that urban workers will move to high pay. However, the results suggest that any urban-rural differences in the typical low pay experience are particularly concentrated among certain types of individuals, e.g. young workers, women without qualifications.Preprin

The labour market position of Turkish immigrants in Germany and the Netherlands; reason for migration, naturalisation and language proficiency

On the basis of two datasets, the German Socio-Economic Panel 2002 and the Dutch Social Position and Use of Provision Survey 2002, we investigate the importance of characteristics related to immigration for the labour market position of Turkish immigrants. We use regression techniques to correct for composition effects in employment rates, tenured job rates and job prestige scores (ISEI). First, we find that educational attainment and language proficiency have a higher return in the Netherlands than in Germany. Second, we find that second generation immigrants have improved their labour market position relative to the first generation of labour migrants and their partners. The improvement is largely due to an improvement in educational attainment and language proficiency. Third, for the Netherlands we find a positive relation between naturalisation and labour market position, while for Germany we find a negative relation with tenured employment. The contrasting results on tenured employment may be explained partly by differences in immigration rules. In Germany, economic self-reliance is more important than in the Netherlands, and this may lead to a stronger incentive to naturalise for workers with a temporary contract.

Jobs online monthly report – February 2014

This paper measures changes in job vacancies in New Zealand advertised by businesses on the two main internet job boards – SEEK and Trade Me Jobs. In seasonally adjusted terms, that skilled job vacancies fell by 2.0% in February, following a 7.4% increase in January. All job vacancies also decreased down 1.3% from last month. Over the year to February, skilled vacancies increased by 16.4%, while all vacancies increased by 18.1%

Labour market performance of immigrants in the UK labour market

From executive summary: This document is a report commissioned by the Home Office to analyse the performance of immigrants in the UK labour market. It attempts to draw a comprehensive picture of the labour market performance of immigrants, and the process of adaptation relative to the UK-born white population. Four indicators of economic performance are investigated: (i) employment, (ii) labour force participation, (iii) self-employment, and (iv) wages. The analysis distinguishes between males and females, and between groups of different origin. The effects of specific variables on these outcomes are investigated in detail. The report also considers labour market outcomes of ethnic minority individuals who are born in the UK, and compares their outcomes with those of UK-born white individuals, and of ethnic minority individuals who are foreign-born

Labour Market Segmentation : a Comparison between France and the UK From the Eighties to nowadays

Regarding changes in French and British labour market as in their educational system since the Eighties, one may address the evolution of their labour market segmentation. Is the predominance of Internal Labour Market in France and Occupational Labour Market in Great Britain (Eyraud, Marsden, Silvestre,1990) still relevant ? We propose a more complex segmentation of labour market with four segments based on tenure, labour mobility and their wage return to account for nowadays situation. Empirical investigations we carried out are based on national labour surveys (Enquête Emploi for France, LFS and GHS for Great Britain). In this paper we expose first investigations and explain which further methods we propose to use in order to characterise French and British labour market segmentation.French labour market; British labour market; labour market segmentation; Internal Labour Market; Occupational Labour Market; United-Kingdom; France

Labour Market Structure: A Brief Literature Survey

Labour market is a multi-dimensional entity, with inexorable institutional affiliation. Therefore, the studies on labour market fail to evolve a logical framework to its structure with satisfactory consensus to the theoreticians in totality. It is very interesting to examine the various dimensions of labour market. This paper reviews certain research contributions on labour market structure, segmentation and vulnerability issues.labour market, labour market structure, labour market segmentation, gender concerns and vulnerability in labour market

Self-employment, wage employment and informality in a developing economy

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.We construct a simple model incorporating various urban labour market phenomena obtaining in developing economies, and we give a diagrammatic formulation of the market equilibrium. Our initial formulation assumes an integrated labour market and allows for entrepreneurship, self-employment, and wage employment. We then introduce labour market segmentation. In equilibrium voluntary and involuntary self-employment, formal and informal wage employment, and formal and informal entrepreneurship may all coexist. We illustrate the model by an example calibrated on Latin American data, examining individual labour market transitions and implications of education/training and labour market policies

The Effective and Regulatory Mechanism of the Labour Market

The current paper aims to research the functioning mechanism of labour market, departing from the idea that labour market represents a constitutive part of the market system, the market system stands as a subsystem of economy and the economy itself a subsystem of the society. First of all, the labour market mechanism results from the essential interdependencies between the structural components of such market, between the labour market and the other markets, between the market system and the economic one, as well as between the economic and social system. Secondly, the labour market mechanism arise from its functional relations with the operational, executive, legislative, institutional and organizational structures of the social system from which it belongs, and which functional relations manifest as public preferences towards the functioning of the labour market. Therefore the regulatory mechanism of the labour market functions in two main steps, each of them comprising means and instruments for the implementation of the regulatory process: the spontaneous mechanism (based on objective necessity) and the intervention mechanism on the labour market, making use of various external economic means.social system, economic system, market system, labour market, labour market mechanism.

Segmented Labour Markets in South Africa

[Excerpt] The textbook labour market model aggregates all workers, all employers and all sectors of the economy into a single labour market. In this single labour market, workers supply labour, employers demand labour and the rate of pay (termed wage for shorthand) is determined by the intersection of supply and demand. Segmented labour market analysis proceeds from a different starting point. Workers, employers and sectors are not aggregated together. Rather, two or more labour market segments are identified, the groupings reflecting fundamental differences in how labour supply, labour demand and wage-determination mechanisms operate in different segments. For example, in the South African context, it is meaningful to segment the labour market according to whether or not the workers belong to trade unions, and the unions succeed in raising wages, benefits and other working conditions for their employed members above what they otherwise would be. In the unionized segment of the South African labour market, compensation is determined by bargaining or contract extension, and the terms agreed to are extended to all firms in the industry or region irrespective of size. Otherwise, compensation is determined by supply and demand. This, then, leads to the fundamental characterization of a segmented labour market. Labour markets are segmented when, for workers of a given type (a) some jobs are better than others in terms of wages, benefits and/or other working conditions, and (b) access to the good jobs is rationed, meaning that some workers who would like jobs in the better paying segments and who are capable of performing those jobs are able to get such jobs but others who also would like such jobs and are capable of performing them cannot