The surprisingly exclusive nature of medium- and low-skilled jobs

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to learn more about demand for competences is crucial for revealing the complex relationship between employee selection, different strands of education and training and labor market regulation. Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis and statistics of job advertisements. Findings – Employer skills requirements even for low- and medium-skilled jobs are highly specific. Formal education requirements are higher than they “should” be. No detectable “basic package” of general cognitive skills for low- and medium-skilled jobs was found. Employer demand focusses on non-cognitive skills and specific cognitive skills. Specificity of skill requirement across different sectors or occupation groups differs vastly between different types of low- and medium-skilled jobs and is linked to the interactive nature of the job, not to the qualifications or the experience required. Research limitations/implications – The analysis can be considered an initial feasibility test for a larger comparative cross-country project that would aim to understand labor demand in different EU countries. Practical implications – The analysis could be used as input in designing labor market policy and life-long learning programs to integrate low-skilled and unemployed. Social implications – The research provides a tool to match disadvantaged workers to jobs for which they possess greater capabilities or to help them develop crucial skills for a given occupation. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the HRM literature with a more demand-led approach to labor market policy. The authors reveal what role skills and upskilling can play in alleviating the problem of unemployment. The results can be useful for HR specialists and policy makers.

Using online vacancies and web surveys to analyse the labour market: a methodological inquiry

“…His representativeness test was based on comparing the structure of portal vacancies and CVs to the structure of the whole population based on the national Labour Force Survey. Beblavý et al (2015) use the same private online job portal data to study demand for formal qualifications and other skills in a wide range of low-and mediumskilled occupations by means of content analysis and simple statistical methods. They consider their findings generalisable for the Slovak context due to the portal's dominant market share and very high reputation of the portal among employers and employees.…”

“…Its particular utility could potentially lie in enabling cross-country comparisons, which could inform policy-makers at the national and EU level . In general, research engaged with online vacancy data has typically relied on private job portals (Backhaus 2004;Capiluppi and Baravalle 2010;Stefánik 2012;Kuhn and Shen 2013;Masso et al 2014;Beblavý et al 2015).…”

Are student jobs flexible jobs? Using online data to study employers’ preferences in Slovakia

“…The portal covers 80% of the Slovak job vacancy market (Štefánik 2012;Beblavý et al 2016). It is able to collect significantly more job offers than registered vacancies collected by the public authorities (Fig.…”

“…Experience ranks high in employers' preferences, and this increases the incentives for young people to seek practical experience while still in education (Quintini and Martin 2014;Beblavý et al 2016).…”

“…the 'soft skills' demanded, such as communication skills, trainability, flexibility, social skills and appearance, making student workers able to respond to the skill needs of firms (Autor et al 2003;Maxwell 2006;Brunello and Schlotter 2011;Beblavý et al 2016).…”