Dead-end jobs or steppingstones? Precarious work in Albania

Abstract

Purpose This study asks whether lower quality forms of employment lead to career transitions into higher quality forms of employment acting as steppingstones, or bridges or, whether instead they lead to dead-ends, or traps, in which workers move between unstable jobs with low prospects for upward mobility and unemployment.Design/methodology/approach This study uses a unique longitudinal dataset recording monthly employment states over 3 years for 373 individuals in the Albanian city of Shkoder. The analysis uses sequence and regression analysis to investigate whether people employed in lower quality, more precarious jobs remain in these kinds of jobs or instead are able to transition into higher quality, permanent and full-time employment.Findings In line with previous evidence for the region, the analysis confirms the precarization of many working lives particularly for women, young people and those with lower educational attainment. This evidence is more supportive of the dead-end hypothesis than the idea that a lower quality job can be a steppingstone into a better job.Originality/value This study contributes to the limited knowledge of labour market functioning in developing post-socialist Western Balkans countries. Recent flexicurity policies have generated an increased prevalence of more precarious employment arrangements in Albania. This investigation addresses previous research limitations regarding point-in-time transitions and unobserved heterogeneity using retrospective longitudinal data and controlling for personality traits.

Active political engagement, political patronage and local labour markets – The example of Shkoder

“…Central to the analysis of these divisions and inequalities in shaping employment outcomes is the demand side of the market. While there is a more pronounced multiple segmentation in Job security Some insecurity with regime changes Note(s): 1 Jobs without a written contract (avoiding taxation and social security payments) 2 Employers will register workers as receiving minimum wage for tax reasons and asking them to partially return in cash the minimum wage received by the bank 3 Opportunities for bribery and corruption or other forms of in-kind payments such as real estate or land Source(s): Drishti and Carmichael (2022) Table 1. Segmentation of the labour market in Albania IJM 44,6 the private sector due to poor labour law enforcement and informal and corrupt practices, the public sector is perceived as a primary/core segment due to its regulation and protection.…”