Increasing labor market insecurities among young people in Hungary? Labor market entry process since the early 1980s

Der vorliegende Beitrag zielt darauf, in systematischer Weise die Übergänge von Schule zu Arbeit und den Prozess des Berufsanfangs in Ungarn zwischen 1980 und 2003 zu beschreiben. Eines der Schlüsselprobleme der Studie ist die Beziehung zwischen Bildung und Arbeitsmarkt vor und nach dem Zusammenbruch des Sozialismus. Besonders die Frage, in welcher Weise Veränderungen im institutionellen System diese Beziehungen beeinflussen, steht im Mittelpunkt. Der Autor analysiert dabei insbesondere die Zeitspanne, die es braucht, eine Anstellung zu finden, und die Qualität dieser ersten Beschäftigung bezogen auf die vorherige Ausbildung. Hinsichtlich des weiteren Karriere-Prozesses liegt der Fokus auf der Beziehung zwischen dem Arbeitsmarktzugang und den Chancen und den Gefahren in der nachfolgenden Arbeitskarriere. Untersucht werden hier der Einfluss des Arbeitssuchprozesses und die Charakteristiken der ersten Beschäftigung auf der Wahrscheinlichkeit des Statuszugewinns und des Statusverlusts sowie auf die Möglichkeit, in den ersten Jahren arbeitslos zu werden. Es wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob Schwierigkeiten beim Arbeitsmarktzugang die Karriere dauerhaft beeinflussen. (ICD

Late careers in Hungary : coping with the transformation from a socialist to a market economy

The chapter is for private use onlyIn this chapter, we first outline how macro-economic developments and the institutional context have influenced the Hungarian labor market during the period of economic and social transformation. We describe the main labor market trends, the changes of retirement policies, and the role of the educational system. In the following section, we present our hypotheses on how these macro-economic and institutional changes have influenced the late careers of Hungarian workers, and its consequences on pension income. Then, we describe the statistical methods used in our analyses. In the empirical part, we provide estimates from event history models predicting the risk of unemployment and the likelihood of early exit from the labor force via normal retirement or disability pension. We also provide estimates from a linear regression model examining the determinants of pension income. In our analyses, we use data from the Household Monitor Survey conducted by the TÁRKI Social Research Center in 2003. This is the most appropriate data source available, and provides the necessary information for the period between 1988 and 200

The pattern of social fluidity within the British class structure: a topological model

It has previously been shown that across three British birth cohorts, relative rates of intergenerational social class mobility have remained at an essentially constant level among men and also among women who have worked only full-time. We aim now to establish the pattern of this prevailing level of social fluidity and its sources and to determine whether it too persists over time, and to bring out its implications for inequalities in relative mobility chances. We develop a parsimonious model for the log odds ratios which express the associations between individuals’ class origins and destinations. This model is derived from a topological model that comprises three kinds of readily interpretable binary characteristics and eight effects in all, each of which does, or does not, apply to particular cells of the mobility table: i.e. effects of class hierarchy, class inheritance and status affinity. Results show that the pattern as well as the level of social fluidity is essentially unchanged across the cohorts; that gender differences in this prevailing pattern are limited; and that marked differences in the degree of inequality in relative mobility chances arise with long-range transitions where inheritance effects are reinforced by hierarchy effects that are not offset by status affinity effects

Continuing complexity: the university careers of a scientific elite in relation to their class origins and schooling

We report on continuing research on the UK scientific elite, intended to illustrate a proposed new approach to elite studies and based on a prosopography of Fellows of the Royal Society born from 1900. We extend analyses previously reported of Fellows' social origins and secondary schooling to take in their university careers as under- and postgraduates. The composite term ‘Oxbridge’, as often applied in elite studies, is called into question, as members of the scientific elite prove to have been recruited more from Cambridge than from Oxford. Particular interest then attaches to the relation between Fellows' social origins and schooling and their attendance at Cambridge. Among Fellows whose university careers were made at Cambridge, those of more advantaged class origins and those with private schooling are over-represented, although in this, as in various other respects, including Fellows' field of study, family influences persist independently of schooling. One suggestive interaction effect exists in that being privately educated increases the probability of having been at Cambridge more for Fellows from managerial than from professional families. Private schooling leading on to both undergraduate and postgraduate study at Cambridge can be identified as the educational ‘royal road’ into the scientific elite; and Fellows coming from higher professional and managerial families alike have the highest probability of having entered the elite in this way. But the most common route turns out in fact to be via state schooling and attendance at universities outside of ‘the golden triangle’ of Cambridge, Oxford and London; and this route is far more likely to have been followed by Fellows of all other class origins than higher professional. The relation between the degree of social skew in the recruitment of an elite and the degree of social homogeneity among its members can be more complex than has often been supposed

Increasing flexibility at labor market entry and in the early career: a new conceptual framework for the flexCAREER project

"Continuous full-time work is becoming less frequent in modern societies. Instead, flexible forms of employment such as part-time work, fixed-term contracts, and self-employment as well as phases of unemployment are gaining importance. These trends are supposed to be more pronounced at labor market entry, leading to a prolonged entry process and increasing difficulties in becoming established on the labor market. However, there are vast differences between countries with regard to forms of labor market flexibility and the degrees of uncertainty young people have to face. This working paper provides a theoretical framework for the empirical studies within the flexCAREER research program. The aim of flexCAREER is to study the consequences of employment flexibility strategies on labor market entries and early careers as well as their impact on structures of social inequality in a cross-country perspective. We explain the reasons behind the rise in employment flexibility and develop hypotheses with special regard to nation-based institutional differences. In particular, we describe which role institutional settings such as the educational system, production regimes, employment protection legislations, and labor market policies play in determining the consequences of employment flexibility strategies. We focus on the institutional contexts of Great Britain, the USA, Germany (East and West), France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, and Hungary, which are the countries under study. The hypotheses in this working paper concern the following aspects: 1. the phase of labor market entry in terms of a) the duration of search for the first job and b) the quality of this first job (with regard to the flexibility of the employment contract and the 'adequacy' of the job with respect to the employee's educational qualification). 2. In view of the early career, we outline our expectations in terms of a) the risk of unemployment, b) the chances of reentering the labor force when unemployed (e.g., with regard to the duration of unemployment until finding a new job), c) upward and downward mobility, d) the chances of leaving precarious work at the beginning of the career, and e) the risk of making a transition into a precarious form of employment." (author's abstract

The mobility problem in Britain: new findings from the analysis of birth cohort data

Social mobility is now a matter of greater political concern in Britain than at any time previously. However, the data available for the determination of mobility trends are less adequate today than two or three decades ago. It is widely believed in political and in media circles that social mobility is in decline. But the evidence so far available from sociological research, focused on intergenerational class mobility, is not supportive of this view. We present results based on a newly-constructed dataset covering four birth cohorts that provides improved data for the study of trends in class mobility and that also allows analyses to move from the twentieth into the twenty-first century. These results confirm that there has been no decline in mobility, whether considered in absolute or relative terms. In the case of women, there is in fact evidence of mobility increasing. However, the better quality and extended range of our data enable us to identify other ‘mobility problems’ than the supposed decline. Among the members of successive cohorts, the experience of absolute upward mobility is becoming less common and that of absolute downward mobility more common; and class-linked inequalities in relative chances of mobility and immobility appear wider than previously thought

Flexibility processes and social inequalities at labor market entry and in the early career: a conceptual paper for the flexCAREER project

"Continuous full-time work is becoming less frequent in modern societies. Instead, flexible forms of employment such as part-time work, fixed-term contracts, and self-employment as well as phases of unemployment are gaining importance. These trends are supposed to be more pronounced at labor market entry, leading to a longer entry process and increasing difficulties in becoming established in the labor market. However, there are vast differences between countries with regard to forms of labor market flexibility and the degree of uncertainty faced by young people. This working paper provides a theoretical framework for the empirical studies within the flexCAREER research program. The aim of flexCAREER is to study the consequences of employment flexibility strategies on labor market entries and early careers as well as their impact on structures of social inequality in a cross-country perspective. We explain the reasons behind the rise in employment flexibility and develop hypotheses with special regard to nation-based institutional differences. In particular, we describe what role institutions such as the education system, employment relations, and welfare regimes play in determining the consequences of employment flexibility strategies. We focus on the institutional contexts of Great Britain, the USA, Germany (East and West), the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, and Hungary; these are the countries under study within the project. The hypotheses in this working paper concern the following aspects: 1. the phase of labor market entry in terms of a) the duration of search for the first job and b) the quality of this first job (with regard to the flexibility of the employment contract and the 'adequacy' of the job with respect to the employee's educational qualification). 2. In view of the early career we outline our expectations in terms of a) the risk of unemployment, b) the chances of re-entering the labor force when unemployed (e.g., with regard to the duration of unemployment until finding a new job), c) upward and downward mobility, d) the chances of leaving precarious work at the beginning of the career, and e) the risk of making a transition into a precarious form of employment." (author's abstract

Cumulative Inequalities over the Life-Course: Life-long Learning and Social Mobility in Britain

This paper examines the possibility that life-long learning promotes intergenerational class mobility. The following two research questions are asked. Is it the case that further education provides individuals coming from less advantaged origins with a second chance to improve on their educational attainment? Is it the case that the returns to further qualifications, in terms of chances of upward class career mobility, are greater for children from less advantaged backgrounds than for children from more advantaged backgrounds? The analyses – that are based on the complete educational and class histories of men and women in a British birth cohort – mainly produce negative findings. Children coming from managerial and professional backgrounds seem to benefit most from further education. More specifically, further education appears to be an effective means of career advancement for individuals of managerial and professional origins who start out in their working lives in relatively low level class positions. Via further education they can increase or update their qualifications, and in turn enhance their chances of being counter-mobile back to their class of origin. Overall, based on the findings of this paper, we can conclude that qualifications attained through life-long learning primarily serve to maintain, rather than to narrow, inequalities attached to social origins in Britain