a column by Bas van der Klaauw and Lennart Ziegler for VOX: CEPR’s Policy Portal
Although temporary jobs are often characterised by lower pay, advocates of temporary work argue that taking up such jobs can increase the chances to find regular work in the long run.
This column reviews evidence on the effectiveness of a labour market ‘speed date’ programme in the Netherlands, where unemployed job seekers are matched with temporary work agencies. The speed dates are effective in reducing the costs of unemployment insurance but, in the long run, temporary work does not serve as a stepping stone towards regular employment.
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Showing posts with label temporary_work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label temporary_work. Show all posts
Thursday, 9 May 2019
Monday, 20 May 2013
Is a Temporary Job Better Than Unemployment? A Cross-country Comparison Based on British, German, and Swiss Panel Data
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research (number 543-2013) by Michael Gebel (University of Mannheim) published by SOEP
Abstract
While many previous studies on temporary work have found disadvantages for temporary workers as compared to workers with a permanent contract, this study compares temporary work to the alternative of unemployment. Specifically, this paper investigates the potential integrative power of taking up a temporary job for unemployed workers as compared to the counterfactual situation of remaining unemployed and searching for another job.
Applying a dynamic propensity-score matching approach based on British, (West and East) German, and Swiss panel data during the period of 1991–2009, it is shown that taking up a temporary job increases the employment chances during the subsequent five years in (West and East) Germany and the UK.
Moreover, the chances of having a permanent contract remain higher and a persistent wage premium can be found during the subsequent five years of the career. Advantages of taking up a temporary job are slightly stronger in West Germany compared to East Germany, where temporary contracts are often based on public job creation measures with limited integration potential.
Neither long-run advantages nor disadvantages of taking up a temporary job can be found in the case of the flexible Swiss labour market
JEL classification: C14, C41, J41, J60, J64
Full text (PDF 32pp)
Abstract
While many previous studies on temporary work have found disadvantages for temporary workers as compared to workers with a permanent contract, this study compares temporary work to the alternative of unemployment. Specifically, this paper investigates the potential integrative power of taking up a temporary job for unemployed workers as compared to the counterfactual situation of remaining unemployed and searching for another job.
Applying a dynamic propensity-score matching approach based on British, (West and East) German, and Swiss panel data during the period of 1991–2009, it is shown that taking up a temporary job increases the employment chances during the subsequent five years in (West and East) Germany and the UK.
Moreover, the chances of having a permanent contract remain higher and a persistent wage premium can be found during the subsequent five years of the career. Advantages of taking up a temporary job are slightly stronger in West Germany compared to East Germany, where temporary contracts are often based on public job creation measures with limited integration potential.
Neither long-run advantages nor disadvantages of taking up a temporary job can be found in the case of the flexible Swiss labour market
JEL classification: C14, C41, J41, J60, J64
Full text (PDF 32pp)
Friday, 12 April 2013
The Temporary Work Revolution: The Shift from Jobs that Solve Poverty to Jobs that Make Poverty
an article by David G. Van Arsdale (no affiliation(s) provided) published in WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor & Society Volume 16 Issue 1 (March 2013)
Abstract
The creation of new jobs will not fix the problem of growing poverty in this era, now at record highs according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Today, nearly half of all jobs created are the source of poverty, the consequence of a shift to temporary employment standards, a trend beginning in the early 1970s and growing exponentially since the 2008 recession. In the immediate years following the recession, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that over 90 percent of all work created was temporary, increasing the scope, revenue, and capital investments in the U.S. staffing industry.
Numerous studies have shown the jobs of this industry to be insecure by design and primarily low-wage (Dietz ; Theodore and Peck ; Van Arsdale ). This article explains just how significant the shift to temporary work has been and why temporary staffing, a form of outsourcing labour by the staffing industry, is producing poverty for millions and stagnating wages for everyone, especially in this post-recession reconstruction.
The temporary work revolution marks a radical shift away from the post-World War II logic that dedication to a job can and should solve poverty.
Today, unfortunately, for most workers in the U.S., dedication to one’s job cannot resolve one’s economic woes. Most new jobs are simply too temporary, part-time, and low paying.
Hazel’s comment:
OK, this is all about the USA but …
Abstract
The creation of new jobs will not fix the problem of growing poverty in this era, now at record highs according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Today, nearly half of all jobs created are the source of poverty, the consequence of a shift to temporary employment standards, a trend beginning in the early 1970s and growing exponentially since the 2008 recession. In the immediate years following the recession, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that over 90 percent of all work created was temporary, increasing the scope, revenue, and capital investments in the U.S. staffing industry.
Numerous studies have shown the jobs of this industry to be insecure by design and primarily low-wage (Dietz ; Theodore and Peck ; Van Arsdale ). This article explains just how significant the shift to temporary work has been and why temporary staffing, a form of outsourcing labour by the staffing industry, is producing poverty for millions and stagnating wages for everyone, especially in this post-recession reconstruction.
The temporary work revolution marks a radical shift away from the post-World War II logic that dedication to a job can and should solve poverty.
Today, unfortunately, for most workers in the U.S., dedication to one’s job cannot resolve one’s economic woes. Most new jobs are simply too temporary, part-time, and low paying.
Hazel’s comment:
OK, this is all about the USA but …
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
Dualism, Job Polarization, and the Social Construction of Precarious Work
an article by Steven Vallas and Christopher Prener (Northeastern University, Boston, USA) published in Work and Occupations Volume 39 Number 4 (November 2012)
Abstract
Publication of Arne Kalleberg’s Good Jobs, Bad Jobs provides a welcome opportunity to re-examine the theoretical and conceptual frameworks that scholars bring to bear on precarious employment.
An exemplar of what was once called the “new structuralism,” Kalleberg’s book provides a rigorous, multidimensional analysis of the changes impinging on job stability and security. Although it identifies a vitally important trend toward a growing polarization in the distribution of job rewards, it does so in ways that illustrate the limits of the genre of research to which it belongs.
Constrained to view the subjective experience of work as merely dependent variables, the book cannot explore how social, political, and cultural processes have both shaped and legitimated the rise of precarious employment.
Drawing on recent studies of the popular business press and other media representations, we document the rise of a culture of enterprise that has idealised the uncertainties that have come to grip the labour market, defining the latter as a site on which individual agency can freely unfold.
Only by addressing the interplay between job structures and such discursive and political developments can we hope to understand the rise of labour market precarity, let alone expand workers’ rights to protection against market uncertainty.
Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s to 2000s by Arne L. Kalleberg (published July 2011) is available from the publishers the Russell Sage Foundation
Abstract
Publication of Arne Kalleberg’s Good Jobs, Bad Jobs provides a welcome opportunity to re-examine the theoretical and conceptual frameworks that scholars bring to bear on precarious employment.
An exemplar of what was once called the “new structuralism,” Kalleberg’s book provides a rigorous, multidimensional analysis of the changes impinging on job stability and security. Although it identifies a vitally important trend toward a growing polarization in the distribution of job rewards, it does so in ways that illustrate the limits of the genre of research to which it belongs.
Constrained to view the subjective experience of work as merely dependent variables, the book cannot explore how social, political, and cultural processes have both shaped and legitimated the rise of precarious employment.
Drawing on recent studies of the popular business press and other media representations, we document the rise of a culture of enterprise that has idealised the uncertainties that have come to grip the labour market, defining the latter as a site on which individual agency can freely unfold.
Only by addressing the interplay between job structures and such discursive and political developments can we hope to understand the rise of labour market precarity, let alone expand workers’ rights to protection against market uncertainty.
Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s to 2000s by Arne L. Kalleberg (published July 2011) is available from the publishers the Russell Sage Foundation
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Job attitudes, behaviours and well-being among different types of temporary workers in Europe and Israel
an article by Francisco J. Gracia, José Ramos, José María Peiró and Amparo Cabeller (University of Valencia) and Beatriz Sora (Open University of Catalonia) published in International Labour Review Volume 150 Issue 3-4 (December 2011)
Abstract
Applying an innovative typology based on preference for temporary employment and perceived employability, the authors empirically examine four types of temporary workers (and a group of permanent workers for comparison).
In a sample of 1,300 employees from six countries, they find significant differences between the four types on a broad set of variables – including demographic and job characteristics, attitude and insecurity – but not in life satisfaction and well-being.
They conclude with an argument against the equation of temporary employment with low-skilled workers unable to find a permanent job, stressing the valuable implications of more sensitive research for policy-making on flexicurity.
Abstract
Applying an innovative typology based on preference for temporary employment and perceived employability, the authors empirically examine four types of temporary workers (and a group of permanent workers for comparison).
In a sample of 1,300 employees from six countries, they find significant differences between the four types on a broad set of variables – including demographic and job characteristics, attitude and insecurity – but not in life satisfaction and well-being.
They conclude with an argument against the equation of temporary employment with low-skilled workers unable to find a permanent job, stressing the valuable implications of more sensitive research for policy-making on flexicurity.
Monday, 9 January 2012
Are temporary jobs a port of entry into permanent employment?: …
Evidence from matched employer-employee
an article by Fabio Berton (University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy and LABORatorio Revelli, Turin), Francesco Devicienti, (Collegio Carlo Alberto, University of Turin and LABORatorio Revelli, Turin) and Lia Pacelli (University of Turin, and LABORatorio Revelli, Turin) published in International Journal of Manpower Volume 32 Issue 8 (2011)
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore whether temporary jobs are a port of entry into permanent employment and to argue that the answer crucially depends on the type of temporary contracts being considered.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper bases its empirical evidence on a longitudinal sample of labour market entrants in Italy and estimates dynamic multinomial logit models with fixed effects to allow for the non-random sorting of workers into the different types of contracts.
Findings
The authors show that the transition to permanent employment is more likely for individuals who hold any type of temporary contract than for the unemployed, thus broadly confirming the existence of port-of-entry effects. Yet, not all temporary contracts are the same. An order among non-standard contracts with respect to the probability of taking an open-ended job emerges, with training contracts at the top, freelance work at the bottom, and fixed-term contracts outperforming apprenticeships. Strong SSC rebates, lack of training requirements, and low legal constraints concerning renewals result in poor port-of-entry performance, as in the case of freelance contracts. Instead, mandatory training and more binding legal constraints on the use, extension, and renewals of training contracts tend to enhance the probability of getting a standard job.
Originality/value
Most of the existing empirical literature aggregates temporary contracts in a single category, thereby ignoring a relevant source of heterogeneity.
an article by Fabio Berton (University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy and LABORatorio Revelli, Turin), Francesco Devicienti, (Collegio Carlo Alberto, University of Turin and LABORatorio Revelli, Turin) and Lia Pacelli (University of Turin, and LABORatorio Revelli, Turin) published in International Journal of Manpower Volume 32 Issue 8 (2011)
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore whether temporary jobs are a port of entry into permanent employment and to argue that the answer crucially depends on the type of temporary contracts being considered.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper bases its empirical evidence on a longitudinal sample of labour market entrants in Italy and estimates dynamic multinomial logit models with fixed effects to allow for the non-random sorting of workers into the different types of contracts.
Findings
The authors show that the transition to permanent employment is more likely for individuals who hold any type of temporary contract than for the unemployed, thus broadly confirming the existence of port-of-entry effects. Yet, not all temporary contracts are the same. An order among non-standard contracts with respect to the probability of taking an open-ended job emerges, with training contracts at the top, freelance work at the bottom, and fixed-term contracts outperforming apprenticeships. Strong SSC rebates, lack of training requirements, and low legal constraints concerning renewals result in poor port-of-entry performance, as in the case of freelance contracts. Instead, mandatory training and more binding legal constraints on the use, extension, and renewals of training contracts tend to enhance the probability of getting a standard job.
Originality/value
Most of the existing empirical literature aggregates temporary contracts in a single category, thereby ignoring a relevant source of heterogeneity.
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