Anthony Rafferty

Women and recession revisited

In earlier work (Rubery, 1988), the extent to which women might act as a flexible reserve over the business cycle was argued to depend on three main factors: the pattern of gender segregation and its relationship to employment change; women’s commitment to labour market participation; and state policy and support for women’s employment. This article revisits these factors in the context of the 2008/9 recession and the follow-on austerity policy to explore how gender segregation is associated with employment change by gender, how far reduced demand is influencing women’s labour market participation, and the implications of changes in public policy associated with austerity and reduced labour demand for women’s future employment position.

Ethnic penalties in graduate level over-education, unemployment and wages: evidence from Britain

Although access to higher education has helped many minority ethnic men and women improve their labour market position compared to prior generations or the less qualified, it remains unclear to what extent higher level qualifications facilitate an equalization of labour market outcomes with comparably educated white UK born men and women. This article critically examines ethnic differences in graduate level over-education, unemployment and wages as potential markers of discrimination or broader ‘ethnic penalties’, defined as the differences in labour market outcomes persisting after accounting for observable human capital and demographic characteristics. To estimate ethnic penalties a novel approach using covariate matching is applied. The findings reveal that despite their levels of educational attainment penalties persist among several minority ethnic groups. The implications of pre-labour market social disadvantages for explaining patterns of over-education are highlighted.

Choice and Welfare Reform: Lone Parents’ Decision Making around Paid Work and Family Life

Welfare-to-work policy in the UK sees ?choice? regarding lone parents? employment decisions increasingly defined in terms of powers of selection between options within active labour market programmes, with constraints on the option of non-market activity progressively tightened. In this paper, we examine the wider choice agenda in public services in relation to lone-parent employment, focusing on the period following the 2007 Freud Review of welfare provision. (Freud, 2007) Survey data are used to estimate the extent to which recent policies promoting compulsory job search by youngest dependent child age map onto lone parents? own stated decision-making regarding if and when to enter the labour market. The findings indicate a substantial proportion of lone parents targeted by policy reform currently do not want a job and that their main reported reason is that they are looking after their children. Economically inactive lone mothers also remain more likely to have other chronic employment barriers, which traverse dependent child age categories. Some problems, such as poor health, sickness or disability, are particularly acute among those with older dependent children who are the target of recent activation policy.

Participatory HRM practices and job quality of vulnerable workers

Vulnerable workers can be expected to be more subject to direct managerial control over the work process and have little opportunity for participation in shaping their work environment. Opportunities for participation not only are in themselves desirable, but also may have beneficial effects on job quality. However, there has been little exploration of either the extent to which vulnerable workers have access to employee participation or whether such access is equally associated with improved job quality for both vulnerable and non-vulnerable groups. These issues are explored using the fifth wave of the European Working Conditions Survey. We define vulnerable workers by the labour supply characteristics of low education and being female. Consistent with our predictions, regression analyses reveal that, although vulnerable workers have considerably less access to participatory human resource management practices, for those that do have access, similar improvements are found when compared to non-vulnerable groups on all four dimensions of job quality included in the analysis. Some variations were found depending on gender and level of education, but overall, our analysis suggests that increasing access to employee participation practices could provide an important means of improving job quality for vulnerable workers.

Social Impact of the Crisis in the United Kingdom: Focus on Gender and Age Inequalities

This book offers a unique combination of research, case studies and policy discussions. An assessment of national trends in 30 European countries precedes case studies of 14 of them, in which noted European specialists report on individual enterprises or sectors. The volume’s survey of national- and local-level policy solutions contributes to identifying those responses that strengthen economic competitiveness, preserve social cohesion and do not deepen inequalities.

Ethnic differences in women?s labour market activity

How is women’s employment shaped by family and domestic responsibilities? This book, written by leading experts in the field, examines twenty-five years of change in women’s employment and addresses the challenges facing women today.

The convergence and divergence of job discretion between occupations and institutional regimes in Europe from 1995 to 2010

Drawing on technical change and institutional theories, this paper examines the convergence and divergence of job discretion between occupations and institutional regimes in Europe from 1995–2010. Latent growth modelling of a pseudo†panel data set derived from the European Working Conditions Survey reveals that significantly different rates of change have led to an increasing polarization of job discretion between occupations and between Nordic and other European countries. Across occupations the findings are in keeping with routine†biased technical change rather than skill†biased technical change theories and suggest that the effects of technical change on job discretion depend largely on whether technology substitutes or complements job tasks. Across countries, the results are in line with employment regime theory, which suggests that institutional differences (particularly employment policies and trade union influence) are driving cross†national variation in job discretion. Overall, a more comprehensive empirical and theoretical understanding is provided of factors shaping change in a key aspect of job quality, namely job discretion.

How have middle-income households fared in unequal Britain? A focus on work and employment trends

While recent studies have highlighted the phenomenon and risks of increased inequalities between the top and the bottom of society, little research has so far been carried out on trends relating to the median income range that generally represents the middle class. This volume examines the following questions: what are the main transformations in the world of work over the last 20 years in terms of the labour market, social dialogue, and conditions of work, wages and incomes that may have affected the middle class? How has the middle class been altered by the financial and economic crisis? What are the long-term trends for the middle class in Europe?