Country Patterns of Labour
Market Entry and Early Career
Péter Róbert
TARKI Social Research Institute,
Budapest, Hungary
Paper prepared for the DECOWE Conference,
Ljubljana, 24-26 September 2009
Outline of the presentation
• Research ambition and questions
• Conceptual background and hypotheses
• Data issues: REFLEX and HEGESCO
• Construction of the measurements
• Methodology
• Results on country patterns
• Discussion and policy relevance
Research objective:
LM entry and early career
• Easiness and fastness of LM entry:
- length of job search
• Match between education and current job:
- over-education, underemployment
- performance gap / credential gap
- objective / subjective approach
• Early career
- unemployment experience
Conceptual background:
OLM / ILM and EPL
• Internal vs. occupational markets; production
vs. training approach; organisational vs.
qualificational mobility space
- tracking in the school system, vocational
specificity, signalling function
• Employment protection legislation
- insider vs. outsider labour market
Hypotheses:
The effects of OLM / ILM and EPL
• LM entry is easier and faster under the conditions
of OLM due to better signaling function
• Better match between qualifications and jobs
under OLM as the study program is more
vocational oriented
• Stronger EPL makes LM entry more difficult as
insiders are better protected
• Weaker EPL increases the risk of mobility out of
first job including the risk of unemployment
Data: REFLEX and HEGESCO
REFLEX:
• Fielded in 2005
• Covers graduates 5 years
after completing university
in 1999 /2000
• Countries: Austria, France,
Belgium, Germany, UK,
Netherlands, Norway,
Finland, Portugal, Spain,
Italy, Estonia, Czech Rep.
HEGESCO:
• Fielded in 2008 / 2009
• Covers graduates 5 years
after completing university
in 2002 /2003
• Countries: Slovenia,
Poland, Lithuania,
Hungary, Turkey
• Identical questionnaire, same topics
Countries: Predicted typology
Strict EPL
Less strict
EPL
Less weak
EPL
OLM
(strong
signals)
Austria,
Netherlands Czech
Germany,
Rep.
Poland
Slovenia
ILM
(weak
signals)
Lithuania
Southern
Europe
Belgium,
France,
Spain,
Estonia
Italy,
Portugal,
Turkey
Finland,
Norway
Weak
EPL
UK,
Hungary
Dimensions and indicators
• Labour market entry
- Job search lasted longer than 6 months
• Match between qualification and current job
- Working in a job that does not require diploma (based
on ISCO title)
- Feels that working in a job that requires a level of
schooling below tertiary education
- Feels that his/her skills are underutilized in current job
• Early career
- Experienced unemployment at least one time
Methodology: Cluster analysis
•
An explorative technique to display country patterns
based on typical combination of characteristics (=
input indicators: see above)
•
Analysis is performed on country level data (N = 18)
•
Dendogram: the process how countries that are more
similar (closer to each other) are grouped together
•
Selected cluster solution: countries are grouped and
characterized by the indicators that served as input
variables for the method
Dendogram from cluster analysis
Rescaled Distance Cluster Combine
C A S E
Label
Num
France
Belgium
3
12
0
5
10
15
20
25
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+


Czech Rep. 10

Poland
17
  
Lithuania
16
  
Germany
Slovenia
5
14





Austria
4

 
Norway
9



   

Netherlands 6

 

Finland



Estonia
Portugal
13
8
11


Italy
1


UK
7


Hungary
Spain
Turkey
18
2
15

 


Cluster solution: Cluster 1
Country
Job
search
Unemploy Underemp Job does
ment exp. loyed
not need
a diploma
Skills are
underutiliz
ed
Norway
5
21
19
3
18
Estonia
5
23
17
2
25
Finland
6
33
28
5
22
Netherlan
ds
3
25
29
7
28
Portugal
11
42
20
8
12
Cluster solution: Cluster 2
Country
Job
search
Unemploy Underemp Job does
ment exp. loyed
not need
a diploma
Skills are
underutiliz
ed
Austria
6
38
6
10
24
France
8
36
21
3
26
Germany
9
35
15
7
27
Belgium
7
35
27
2
28
Czech Rep.
5
36
21
4
32
Poland
9
42
11
4
30
Slovenia
12
29
23
8
28
Lithuania
6
34
25
7
38
Cluster solution: Cluster 3-4
Country
Job
search
Unemploy Underemp Job does
ment exp. loyed
not need
a diploma
Skills are
underutiliz
ed
Italy
12
35
30
12
30
UK
11
34
40
14
32
Hungary
17
41
39
15
29
Turkey
30
54
30
11
29
Spain
21
62
63
17
32
Discussion: Limitations
• Selection effect: only those analyzed who entered the
labour market
• Conceptual background has been developed and tested
earlier for the entire population of LM entrants and not only
for graduates
• Indicators were carefully selected but a wider range of
them can only be applied if dimensions analyzed
separately
Discussion: Lessons
• Returns to human capital are not homogeneous in the various
societies, institutional differences reshape labour market entry
and early career of graduates
• OLM / ILM and EPL turned out to be relevant for a large number
of countries in the case of several indicators
• Country differences are not solely along the lines of former
political regimes
- the major added value of the HEGESCO project is that including
further new EU member states makes clear the existing variation
among them
- similarly large distance between Estonia and Hungary, and Norway and
Spain.
Discussion: Policy implications
• Governments:
- Further increase of internationalizing the national higher education
system in terms of study programs, methods, international contacts
is crucial requirement
• Employers:
- Collecting more information about study programs → Increasing the
signaling function of education despite of the expansion at tertiary
level → Decrease of underemployment
• Universities:
- Strengthening professional expertise with practical orientation
- Increasing collaboration with employers → better signaling function of
education → helping decreasing search costs of employers and
making easier the LM entry for the students
Thank you!
Péter Róbert
TARKI Social Research Institute
Budaorsi ut 45
1112. Budapest, Hungary
E-mail: [email protected]