M.H.J. Wolbers

Patterns of Labour Market Entry A Comparative Perspective on School-to-Work Transitions in 11 European Countries

Youth labour market integration differs considerably across European countries. There are marked cross-national differences not only in terms of youth unemployment, but also in terms of the quality of the jobs in which young people are employed. This article explains cross-national patterns of labour market entry among school-leavers in 11 European countries. It is hypothesized that national differences in employment protection legislation and the vocational specificity of the education system, in addition to the structural effect of macro-economic conditions, attribute to the observed cross-national variation in youth labour market integration. On the basis of the European Union LFS 2000 ad hoc module on school-to-work transitions, the speed, the quality and the stability of the labour market entry process are analysed. The results indicate that national institutional differences regarding employment protection legislation and the vocational specificity of the education system do indeed affect cross-national differences in labour market entry patterns. However, the impact of both institutional features varies considerably by level of education.

Trends in the Occupational Returns to Educational Credentials in the Dutch Labor Market: Changes in Structures and in the Association?:

In this article, we determine changes in the relationship between education and the labor market in The Netherlands since 1960, for which both developments in the distribution of the labor force according to educational attainment and level of occupation (structural changes) and shifts in the mechanism to allocate educated individuals to occupational positions (which modify the net association between education and occupation) are used. To observe both developments, we make use of data from the 1960 Census and four Labor Force Surveys held in 1973, 1977, 1985, and 1991. Loglinear analysis shows that the association between education and occupation has altered. We conclude that changes in the relationship between education and occupation are not only the result of structural changes, but also the outcome of changes in the way educated individuals are allocated to jobs. These shifts in the allocation mechanism are largely connected with the state of the business cycle: in times of high unemployment, employers increasingly select employees on the basis of their education. We also find some support for modernization theory, but as soon as the state of the business cycle is accounted for, the impact of modernization becomes non-significant.

Youth labour market integration across Europe: The impact of cyclical, structural, and institutional characteristics

ABSTRACT Young people in Europe face great difficulties nowadays when entering the labour market. Unemployment and temporary employment are high among youth, although considerable differences exist between European countries. In this article, we study to what extent cyclical, structural, and institutional factors explain cross-national variation in youth labour market integration. In addition, we examine educational differences in the impact of these macro-characteristics. To answer these questions, we use data on young people from 29 countries who were interviewed in the European Social Survey of 2002, 2004, 2006, or 2008 and left day-time education in the period 1992–2008. Both unemployment and temporary employment are regarded as a lack of labour market integration, compared to the situation of permanent employment. The empirical results first of all show that high unemployment hinders young people to smoothly integrate into the labour market. In addition, economic globalisation positively affects youth labour market integration. We also demonstrate that young people experience less difficulties with labour market integration as the educational system is more vocationally specific. Intermediate and higher educated particularly profit from the positive effect of the vocational specificity of the educational system. Finally, as the employment protection legislation of incumbent workers is stricter, young people experience more difficulties with labour market integration, especially higher educated youth.

Non-standard employment relations and wages among school leavers in the Netherlands

Non-standard (alternatively, flexible) employment has become common in the Netherlands, and viewed as an important weapon for combating youth unemployment. However, if such jobs are ‘bad’, non-standard employment becomes a matter of concern. In addition, non-standard employment may hit the least qualified, excluding them from the primary segment of the labour market, where ‘good’ jobs are found. We first examine whether less-educated school leavers more often end up in a job with a non-standard employment contract than the higher educated. Then, we investigate the effect of having a non-standard employment contract on job advantages in terms of wages. The data come from three large-scale Dutch school leaver surveys as held in 2001.The results show: (a) less-educated school leavers indeed are more likely to have a non-standard contract than more highly educated ones, while (b) those in non-standard employment earn less in their jobs. A substantial part of these differences can be ascribed to the segment of the labour market in which school leavers work.

Success and Failure in Secondary Education: Socio-Economic Background Effects on Secondary School Outcome in the Netherlands, 1927-1998.

In the Netherlands, educational attainment is the result of a sequence of separate educational transitions. Because of the tracked nature of the Dutch educational system, students do not make binary stay‐or‐leave‐decisions at each transition. After having entered one track of secondary education, students can change tracks during the entire secondary course. The initial track and the secondary school outcome therefore are incongruent for a significant proportion of the Dutch students. As social background partly predicts initial track placement, track changes and successful termination of the course, we suggest distinguishing conditional and unconditional effects of family background in the transition to secondary school outcome. This paper complements findings of previous research by taking into account the tracked structure of the Dutch educational system and the entire sequence of transitions in secondary education. For the empirical analysis, repeated cross‐sections from the Family Survey Dutch Population (1992, 1998, 2000 and 2003) are used. Multinomial logistic regressions reveal that inequality in the outcome of secondary education is partly explained by the fact that initial track placement is socially selective and because this initial inequality is even enhanced by track changes during secondary education. The remaining ‘conditional’ effect of parental education, however, indicates that parental education works on top of this selection to prevent drop out. Inequality in secondary school outcome thus is a cumulative result of social background effects in a sequence of educational transitions throughout secondary education. Decreasing inequality over time is entirely explained by decreasing inequality in the transition from primary to secondary education.

Employment insecurity at labour market entry and its impact on parental home leaving and family formation: A comparative study among recent graduates in eight European countries

This article explores whether employment insecurity (i.e. unemployment and flexible employment) at labour market entry has a negative impact on parental home leaving and family formation. To answer this question, data from a large-scale European graduate survey carried out in 1998 were analysed. The results show that graduates with an insecure employment status at labour market entry are indeed less likely to leave the parental home and establish a nuclear household and family than those with stable first employment. With regard to entry into marriage and parenthood, these results especially hold true for men. Furthermore, it is found that in European countries in which unemployment among tertiary education graduates is high, the likelihood of leaving the parental home and starting a nuclear household and family is smaller than in European countries where such unemployment is low.

A Framework for Monitoring Transition Systems

With its publication of the Thematic Review on the Transition from Initial Education to Working Life in 2000, OECD has laid the foundation for the development of indicators regarding the transition from education to work. One of the core activities of OECD’s Network B in 2005 and 2006 was to further develop these indicators by establishing a framework for monitoring transition systems. A transition system is defined as “the social institutions and processes through which a society provides its members to make the transition from the education system to the employment system”. The current report presents the results of this developmental work. It first presents the results of a quick scan carried out among the Network B members on the policy goals for transition systems and relevant indicators used to assess national situations (November 2002-January 2003). Next a theoretical framework is presented that identifies the most relevant characteristics of transition systems. It also relates the outcomes of the transition system to relevant characteristics of the educational system on the one hand and the employment system on the other hand. Based on the results of the quick scan and the developed theoretical framework, an evaluation of the earlier defined policy goals is carried, proposing a new set of 11 policy goals. As a next step, the existing data sources from OECD, EUROSTAT and major international surveys have been analysed to identify relevant indicators for the policy goals as well as descriptors for relevant other aspects of the developed framework. This report presents an overview of these indicators and descriptors. The theoretical framework and the developed set of indicators have been discussed at the March 2006 meeting of the Network B in Washington DC. Members of the network have also sent written comments. All these comments have been taken up in this final version. The report concludes with recommendations for the further data collection strategy. En publiant l’etude « Thematic Review on the Transition from Initial Education to Working Life in 2000 », l’OCDE jette les bases necessaires a la mise au point d’indicateurs dedies a la transition entre les etudes et la vie active. En 2005 et en 2006, le Reseau B de l’OCDE s’est principalement consacre a affiner ces indicateurs en elaborant un cadre de suivi des systemes de transition. Un systeme de transition est defini comme « les institutions et les processus sociaux qui permettent a une societe de fournir aux individus les moyens d’assurer la transition entre le systeme educatif et le marche du travail ». L’etude presente les resultats de ces travaux : dans un premier temps, elle fait le point sur les resultats d’une evaluation rapide realisee parmi les membres du reseau B sur les objectifs des systemes de transition en termes d’action publique et sur les indicateurs retenus pour apprecier la situation dans chaque pays (novembre 2002-janvier 2003). Ensuite, l’etude presente un cadre theorique visant a identifier les caracteristiques les plus pertinentes des systemes de transition. Un lien est ensuite etabli entre les resultats du systeme de transition et les caracteristiques pertinentes du systeme educatif d’une part et du marche du travail de l’autre. Enfin, en s’appuyant sur les conclusions de l’evaluation rapide et sur le cadre theorique presente, l’etude evalue les objectifs definis precedemment en termes d’action publique, pour en proposer 11 nouveaux. Les sources de donnees existantes issues de l’OCDE, d’EUROSTAT et des principales enquetes internationales ont ete analysees en vue d’identifier les indicateurs pertinents pour les objectifs d’action publique et les caracteristiques descriptives des autres aspects importants du cadre theorique. L’etude fait la synthese de ces indicateurs et de ces caracteristiques descriptives. Le cadre theorique et les indicateurs ont ete examines lors de la reunion de mars 2006 du Reseau B a Washington DC et les membres du reseau ont egalement transmis leurs commentaires par ecrit. Tous ces commentaires ont ete pris en compte dans la version finale de l’etude, qui conclut en proposant des recommandations pour la strategie de collecte des donnees.

Cross-national differences in job quality among low-skilled young workers in Europe

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the extent to which the quality of the jobs of low‐skilled young workers is affected by the structure of education and training systems in various European countries. It focuses on the differences between countries providing fairly general education (internal labour market (ILM) contexts) and countries offering more specific vocational education (occupational labour market (OLM) contexts).Design/methodology/approach – Logistic regression analyses.Findings – It is found that low‐skilled young workers are worse off in OLM countries than in ILM ones, with respect to employment in a permanent job, employment in a non‐elementary job and participation in continuing vocational training. However, in OLM countries low‐skilled young workers are less often involuntary part‐time employed than those in ILM countries. With regard to participation in continuing vocational training, the ILM‐OLM contrast is larger in manufacturing than in services; regarding employment in ...

Single-Parent Family Forms and Children's Educational Performance in a Comparative Perspective: Effects of School's Share of Single-Parent Families.

Living in a single-parent family is negatively related with children’s educational performance compared to living with 2 biological parents. In this article, we aim to find out to what extent the context of the school’s share of single-parent families affects this negative relationship. We use pooled data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), that is, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000 and 2003, which contain information on 209,300 students at 11,887 schools in 25 countries. We found that attending a school with more children from single-parent families affects the educational performance of all children negatively, but it particularly harms children from single-mother families. Furthermore, we have indications that in countries in which the number of single-parent families is higher, the negative effect of attending a school with a higher share of single-parent families decreases, except for the US.

Educational attainment, occupational achievements, career peaks: The Netherlands in the second part of the twentieth century

ABSTRACT This paper answers questions on the educational attainment and occupational career of men in The Netherlands whose working life began in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, in so far as their job history is available until at least the age of 45 years. The analysis draws on five Dutch retrospective life-history surveys conducted between 1992 and 2003. The results show that a mans education depends upon his fathers job, and that this effect has not changed for labour market entry cohorts. When explaining a mans first job, his fathers job is influential once more, independent of a mans education. A mans education has a direct positive effect on his first job, his job after 10 and 20 years, and his peak job, but again the differences in status attainment between labour market entry cohorts are limited. Findings also reveal that advantages accumulate during a persons working life. Apart from a higher level of education, a higher first job has an independent positive effect on a mans job after 10 and 20 years, as well as on his peak status.