Dualisation or normalisation of part-time work in the Nordic countries: work insecurity and mobility over time

Author(s):  
Jouko Nätti ◽  
Kristine Nergaard

In this chapter we discuss the development of part-time work in Finland and Norway and ask if there is a trend towards more marginalised part-time work also in the well-regulated Nordic labour markets. Furthermore, we investigate if there are differences between Norway, with its long tradition for normalised part-time jobs among women, and Finland, where full-time work has been the normal choice for women. Part-time jobs are more common among young persons, women, and in the service sectors. In both countries, part-time jobs are more insecure than full-time jobs. However, there is no strong tendency towards more insecure part-time jobs over time. We also examine mobility from part-time jobs to other positions in the labour market. In both countries, part-time work is characterised by high stability. Hence, the results do not give support for increased polarisation in terms of increased work insecurity among part-time employees. in terms of increased work insecurity among part-time employees.

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Therese Jefferson ◽  
Alison Preston

In this article we present data on earnings and hours in 2010 and, using data over a longer time frame, show how the character of the Australian labour market has significantly changed in recent decades. Among other things, we demonstrate a continued shift towards part-time work and, across full-time and part-time labour markets, a change in the distribution of jobs towards more highly skilled occupations. We continue to argue that traditional indicators of labour-market activity, such as headline unemployment and earnings in full-time employment, are only able to partially explain the health of the labour market. There is an urgent need to better understand other dimensions such as underemployment, part-time employment and part-time earnings.


Author(s):  
Hanne Cecilie Kavli ◽  
Roy A. Nielsen

Migrants are often at a disadvantage in the labour market. Increased migration has therefore led to a strong focus in receiving countries on policy that can facilitate employment. Less attention is paid to working hours, contracts or type of work. The workplace is viewed as an arena where immigrants can improve language skills and establish contacts through which they can achieve upwards mobility in the labour market. We investigate transfers out of part-time work among immigrants and natives in Norway. By means of competing risk event history analyses, we compare transitions from part-time work to either full-time positions or exits from the labour market over five years among Norwegians and different groups of immigrants. Stable part-time is less common among immigrants than among natives, as immigrants have higher transfers to both full-time work and unemployment. Immigrants - men and women - have the same or higher likelihood of transitioning from part-time to full-time compared to natives. This suggest that immigrants are more often involuntarily in part-time and that they benefit from the opportunity to demonstrate their skills to employers. However, immigrants also have higher exit risk and this risk increases with short working hours, indicating a higher level of precariousness.


2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 569-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Månsson ◽  
Jan Ottosson

This article analyses the effects of individual characteristics on the probability of leaving part-time unemployment. The results show that it cannot be unreservedly asserted that part-time work offers access to the core labour market. Among the part-time unemployed, there are great variations in the degree to which they are likely to leave part-time unemployment. A concentration of labour market policy activities on the part-time unemployed who are least likely to succeed in finding full-time employment can, therefore, be expected to have positive consequences from both equity and efficiency points of view. In this respect, part-time unemployed women, persons with work-related disabilities and persons with temporary employment come to the forefront. The article shows that the likelihood of finding a full-time job is certainly not great for persons belonging to these groups. For many of them, part-time job is not a stepping stone but rather a dead end on the labour market.


2016 ◽  
pp. 124-147
Author(s):  
Piret Tõnurist ◽  
Dimitris Pavlopoulos

This article uses insights from labour-market segmentation theory in order to investigate the wage differences between part-time and full-time workers in Germany at different parts of the wage distribution. This is accomplished with the use of a quintile regression and panel data from the German Socio Economic Panel (1991-2012). To obtain insights on the part-time wage differentials, we apply a counterfactual wage decomposition analysis. The results indicate the presence of a part-time wage penalty for involuntary part-time work at the low and middle parts of the wage distribution. In contrast, a wage premium for voluntary part-time work emerges, especially at the top of the distribution. Moreover, at the lower end of the wage distribution, part-time workers receive lower returns for their labour market characteristics, indicating the segmentation of the labour market. In contrast, the difference in the characteristics of part-timers and full-timers fully explains the part-time wage gap at the top of the wage distribution.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
David S. Pedulla ◽  
Michael J. Donnelly

Abstract The social and economic forces that shape attitudes toward the welfare state are of central concern to social scientists. Scholarship in this area has paid limited attention to how working part-time, the employment status of nearly 20% of the U.S. workforce, affects redistribution preferences. In this article, we theoretically develop and empirically test an argument about the ways that part-time work, and its relationship to gender, shape redistribution preferences. We articulate two gender-differentiated pathways—one material and one about threats to social status—through which part-time work and gender may jointly shape individuals’ preferences for redistribution. We test our argument using cross-sectional and panel data from the General Social Survey in the United States. We find that the positive relationship between part-time employment, compared to full-time employment, and redistribution preferences is stronger for men than for women. Indeed, we do not detect a relationship between part-time work and redistribution preferences among women. Our results provide support for a gendered relationship between part-time employment and redistribution preferences and demonstrate that both material and status-based mechanisms shape this association.


2012 ◽  
Vol 222 ◽  
pp. R20-R37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirley Dex ◽  
Erzsébet Bukodi

The effects of working part time on job downgrading and upgrading are examined over the life course of British women born in 1958. We use longitudinal data with complete work histories from a large-scale nationally representative cohort study. Occupations were ranked by their hourly average earnings. Analyses show a strong link between full-time/part-time transitions and downward and upward occupational mobility over the course of up to thirty years of employment. Probabilities of occupational mobility were affected by women's personal traits, occupational characteristics and demand-side factors. Downward mobility on moving from full-time to part-time work was more likely for women at the top levels of the occupational hierarchy working in male-dominated or mixed occupations and less likely in higher occupations with more part-time jobs available.


SAGE Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 215824401774269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariska van der Horst ◽  
David Lain ◽  
Sarah Vickerstaff ◽  
Charlotte Clark ◽  
Ben Baumberg Geiger

In the context of population aging, the U.K. government is encouraging people to work longer and delay retirement, and it is claimed that many people now make “gradual” transitions from full-time to part-time work to retirement. Part-time employment in older age may, however, be largely due to women working part-time before older age, as per a U.K. “modified male breadwinner” model. This article therefore separately examines the extent to which men and women make transitions into part-time work in older age, and whether such transitions are influenced by marital status. Following older men and women over a 10-year period using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this article presents sequence, cluster, and multinomial logistic regression analyses. Little evidence is found for people moving into part-time work in older age. Typically, women did not work at all or they worked part-time (with some remaining in part-time work and some retiring/exiting from this activity). Consistent with a “modified male breadwinner” logic, marriage was positively related to the likelihood of women belonging to typically “female employment pathway clusters,” which mostly consist of part-time work or not being employed. Men were mostly working full-time regardless of marital status. Attempts to extend working lives among older women are therefore likely to be complicated by the influence of traditional gender roles on employment.


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