The Role of Wage and Skill Differences in US-German Employment Differences / Die Bedeutung von Lohn- und Qualifikationsunterschieden für die deutschen-amerikanischen Beschäftigungsunterschiede

1999 ◽  
Vol 219 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Freeman ◽  
Ronald Schettkat
Keyword(s):  
Adult Literacy ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
Unskilled Labour ◽  
The Us ◽  
Literacy Survey ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
International Adult Literacy Survey

SummaryThe most popular explanation for greater job creation in the US than in Germany is that greater dispersion of wages coupled with less regulations governing the labour market and the product market in the US has induced firms to employ many less skilled workers. While popular, these explanations turn out to be difficult to prove empirically.Based on the Comparative German American Structural Database and the International Adult Literacy Survey we find that:1. Employment rates differ more than unemployment rates by skill levels and overall.2. German and US relative pay by level of skill was similar in 1970 but diverged in the 1980s.3. The German work force is more skilled than the US work force especially at the lower skill levels.4. The employment of skilled to unskilled labour within industries is unrelated to country differences in skill premium but changes in relatives wages are related to changes in relative employment.5. The differing dispersion of wages is not a major contributor to differences in employment rates between Germany and the US. The jobs problem in Germany is not primarily one of relative labor demand but of demand for labor in general.

scholarly journals Explaining the Decline in the US Employment-to-Population Ratio: A Review of the Evidence

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 585-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine G. Abraham ◽  
Melissa S. Kearney
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Population Aging ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Import Competition ◽  
Employment Rate ◽  
Occupational Licensing ◽  
The Us ◽  
Real Value ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
Population Ratio

This paper first documents trends in employment rates and then reviews what is known about the various factors that have been proposed to explain the decline in the overall employment-to-population ratio between 1999 and 2018. Population aging has had a large effect on the overall employment rate over this period, but within-age-group declines in employment among young- and prime-age adults also have played a central role. Among the factors with effects that we can quantify based on existing evidence, labor demand factors, in particular increased import competition from China and the penetration of robots into the labor market, are the most important drivers of observed within-group declines in employment. Labor supply factors, most notably increased participation in disability insurance programs, have played a less important but not inconsequential role. Increases in the real value of state minimum wages and in the share of individuals with prison records also have contributed modestly to the decline in the aggregate employment rate. In addition to the factors whose effects we roughly quantify, we identify a set of potentially important factors about which the evidence does not yet allow us to draw clear conclusions. These include the challenges associated with arranging child care, improvements in leisure technology, changing social norms, increased use of opioids, the growth in occupational licensing, and declining labor market fluidity. Our evidence-driven ranking of factors should be useful for guiding future discussions about the sources of decline in the aggregate employment-to-population ratio and consequently the likely efficacy of alternative policy approaches to increasing employment rates. (JEL E24, J64)

Discriminatory labour market experiences of A8 national high skilled workers in the UK

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Sirkeci ◽  
Necla Acik ◽  
Bradley Saunders
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
Skills Mismatch ◽  
Annual Population ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Overqualification among migrants, defined as being employed in a job that is below their acquired skill levels through education, is well-known. Recent studies show that overqualification is more likely amongst migrants who work in the older EU15 member states. Similar studies carried out in the UK supports the argument that minorities suffer from ethnic and religious penalties in the labour market, especially among high skilled groups. Despite the relatively high employment rates of A8 migrants in the UK, they tend to be overwhelmingly employed in elementary occupations (i.e. requiring low skill levels) and likely to be underpaid. Very few studies have examined the propensity of overqualification of A8 nationals working in the UK. We have adopted the skills mismatch model to examine the skills level mismatch for the A8 migrants.  Therefore, a time-series analysis was carried out using  the Annual Population Survey for the period of 2005 to 2012 which marks the beginning and end of restrictions for access to the labour market for A8 nationals across the European Union. This has also given us a time span of 8 years during which the UK economy fall into recession from 2007 onwards.. The evidence shows that A8 nationals have been subject to ethnic penalties in the high end of the labour market irrespective of the impact of the financial crisis. It is very common that they take up posts for which they are overqualified, or in other words, overeducated. This is particularly important as discrimination at that level is likely to have negative impact on economic recovery by supressing the full skill and entrepreneurial potential of this particular group in the UK labour market.

scholarly journals Maori Literacy: Its Influence on Earnings and Jobs

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Chapple
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Adult Literacy ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Literacy Survey ◽  
Labour Market Outcomes ◽  
English Literacy ◽  
International Adult Literacy Survey

In terms of explaining the gap between Maori and non-Maori labour market outcomes, little attention has been given to literacy. Yet the 1977 New Zealand International Adult Literacy Survey showed that Maori tested English literacy was considerably lower than that of non-Maori in Prose, Document and Quantitative domains. The paper examines the links between Maori ethnicity, literacy and employment prospects and levels if earnings using cross-tabulations and multi-variate techniques on unit data.

scholarly journals Schulversagen als ungenügende Kompetenzen im Lesen und Rechnen

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-242
Author(s):  
Philipp Notter
Keyword(s):  
Adult Literacy ◽  
Sekundarstufe I ◽  
Literacy Survey ◽  
International Adult Literacy Survey

Der Beitrag betrachtet Schulversagen als ungenügende Kompetenzen im Lesen und Rechnen nach langjährigem Schulbesuch. Er analysiert dazu die Ergebnisse des «International Adult Literacy Survey», der die Lese- und Rechenkompetenzen in der erwachsenen Bevölkerung untersuchte. Zwei Fragen stellen sich: 1. Wie verbreitet sind ungenügende Lese- und Rechenkompetenzen in der Schweiz, und 2. Muss man die Personengruppe, die höchstens eine Ausbildung auf Sekundarstufe I abgeschlossen hat, als Risiko-Gruppe betrachten? Von der einheimischen Bevölkerung weisen ca. 14 Prozent mindestens in einem der drei untersuchten Bereiche für die heutige Gesellschaft ungenügende Kompetenzen auf. Zwar nimmt dieser Prozentsatz bei den jüngeren Personen ab, doch weisen immer noch ca. 6 Prozent der jüngeren Personen mindestens in einem Bereich ungenügende Kompetenzen auf. Bei den Personen, die höchstens eine Ausbildung auf der Sekundarstufe I abgeschlossen haben, weisen ca. 39 Prozent in mindestens einem Bereich ungenügende Kompetenzen auf. Diese Gruppe muss damit als Risiko-Gruppe betrachtet werden.

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