Occupational mobility, employment transitions and job quality in Europe: The impact of the Great Recession

Abstract

This article investigates employment and occupational transitions that are behind structural changes in European labour markets before, during and after the Great Recession. The study introduces a new methodological approach for studying labour market flows considering the quality of the jobs from and into which the flows are taking place by differentiating them into wage quintiles. The analysis compares six European countries that are usually associated with different institutional clusters – France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK. It tracks the transitions of their working age populations into and out of inactivity, unemployment and employment (in five wage categories). The findings show the extent to which employment and occupational mobility patterns differ across European countries, resulting in very different outcomes in terms of employment opportunities and life chances. Results also suggest that the countries studied fall into three distinct categories based on the degree of occupational mobility characterising their economies.

Stuck in a Time Warp? The Great Recession and the Socio-occupational Integration of Migrants in Spain

“…The results concerning unemployment show how the probability of being unemployed was higher during the crisis than before it and that, after the crisis, it was even higher than during the crisis for almost all groups. These results confirm our hypothesis (H3) regarding an increased likelihood of unemployment for both natives and migrants during and after the crisis compared to the before-crisis period and a decreased likelihood for both natives and migrants of belonging to a middle socio-occupational class (“job polarisation”), confirming the results of previous research (Bisello et al, 2020 ). The destruction of employment in the middle socio-occupational classes seems to have corresponded to a downgrade of the working conditions of many workers.…”

“…All these results confirm a tendency towards an increased job polarisation due to the Great Recession, i.e. the decline of mid-paid jobs with respect to jobs at the top and bottom of the labour market structure (Fernández-Macías & Hurley, 2017), which was already found by previous research (Bisello et al, 2020;Fellini, 2017). Our longer observational window highlights how this tendency seems to continue also in the post-crisis period.…”

“…Although recent research has shown how the Great Recession has modified European labour markets, increasing job polarisation, and decreasing job opportunities and occupational mobility (Bisello et al, 2020;Fellini, 2017), to date we find no evidence of the existence of any study that has analysed the socio-occupational integration of immigrants in the Spanish labour market in a time span that includes the post-crisis period. This is unfortunate considering that (1) Spain has been one of the countries most heavily hit by the crisis in Europe and the OECD (Aristegui et al, 2017); (2) during the crisis, a number of neoliberal policies have been implemented in this country with the aim of modifying its labour market by cheapening labour costs and deregulating aspects such as dismissals (Muñoz-Comet & Martínez-Pastor, 2017;Pavolini et al, 2015); and (3) the implementation of austerity policies and the cuts of social rights have left many immigrants in situations of great vulnerability (Bruquetas-Callejo & Moreno, 2015;Pavolini et al, 2015).…”

“…The destruction of employment in the middle socio-occupational classes seems to have corresponded to a downgrade of the working conditions of many workers. It seems that this destruction of jobs in the middle socio-occupational classes may have gone to fuel long-term unemployment (Bisello et al, 2020 ). Interestingly, in contrast, the likelihood of belonging to the I socio-occupational class “Higher grade university-level professionals and managers with 10 or more employees” was higher during the crisis, and even higher after it.…”

“…Although it is not focused on migrants, the investigation conducted by Bisello et al ( 2020 ) on employment and occupational transitions before, during and after the crisis (until 2013) in six European countries, including Spain, is also relevant for our research. The authors observe different patterns in the analysed countries.…”