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Job polarisation in the UK: an assessment using longitudinal data
TLDR
This article used data taken from two waves of the National Child Development Study (NCDS) to study changes in labout market outcomes between 1981 and 2004 for a single cohort and found that the largest number of jobs continue to be in the middle of the wage spectrum.Abstract:
This paper provides an assessment of Goos and Manning's (2007) polarised or 'hour-glass' labout market thesis, which they claim has been caused by a period of routinisation where labout engaged in routine task occupations has been replaced by computer capital. It uses data taken from two waves of the National Child Development Study (NCDS) to study changes in labout market outcomes between 1981 and 2004 for a single cohort. While this dataset does demonstrate changes in employment consistent with routinisation, it is not clear that a polarising labour market is the inevitable conclusion. Looking at wage distributions for this cohort shows that the largest number of jobs continue to be in the middle of the wage spectrum. This paper questions the implicit assumption made by Goos and Manning (and subsequent authors) that initial wages provide a consistent proxy for job quality over the time period, and argues that the wage structure of occupations may have altered significantly over time.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Shades of grey: Understanding job quality in emerging graduate occupations
TL;DR: This paper examined the role of job quality in terms of skills use, job content, job security and pay for university graduates employed in immediately skilled (emerging) and traditional graduate occupations.
Growth without gain? The faltering living standards of people on low-to-middle incomes
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors were grateful to members of the Commission on Living Standards for their guidance on the key issues to be addressed in this report, and thanks are due to Professors for useful comments regarding the analysis in Chapters 2 and 3 and to Dr Anna Okatenko for sharing data used in Chapter 2.
Book ChapterDOI
Precarity — Minority Condition or Majority Experience?
TL;DR: The authors explored the growing interest in precarity in its various forms and meanings and argued that precarity has evolved terminologically from a concern with poverty to a broader sense of precariousness in employment and new forms of stratification and class formation.
The role of skills: from worklessness to sustainable employment with progression: UK Commission for Employment and Skills Evidence Report no. 38
David Devins,Tim Bickerstaffe,Alex Nunn,B Mitchell,Ronald W McQuaid,Valerie Egdell,Colin Lindsay +6 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a literature search and review of the research and evidence base post 2005 is conducted to understand how best to nurture sustainable employment for those at risk of labour market exclusion.
The Role of Skills from Worklessness to Sustainable Employment with Progression: International Case Study Reports
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that there is an inextricable link between skills and better jobs and that a long-term view is required to decide how best to support someone at the point of worklessness: to address employability barriers in the short-term; and prepare the individual to retain, and progress in, employment.
References
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ReportDOI
The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration
TL;DR: This paper found that computer capital substitutes for workers in performing cognitive and manual tasks that can be accomplished by following explicit rules, and complements workers in non-routine problem-solving and complex communications tasks.
Journal ArticleDOI
Intermediate occupations and the conceptual and empirical limitations of the hourglass economy thesis
TL;DR: The authors argued that the hourglass economy thesis best describes recent occupational transformations, but it neglects important dimensions of change within intermediate occupations, which may well provide a more fruitful foundation from which to explore the nature of and developments within these jobs and their broader repercussions.