Why Don’t Firms Hire Young Workers During Recessions?

Recessions are known to be particularly damaging to young workers’ employment outcomes. I find that during recessions the hiring rate falls faster for young workers than for more-experienced workers. I show this cannot be explained by the composition of jobs or workers’ labour supply decisions, and I conclude that firms preferentially hire experienced workers during periods of high unemployment. I develop a new model of cyclical upgrading that relaxes the classic assumptions of exogenous firm size and rigid wages. I show this model predicts larger log wage decreases during recessions for young workers than for experienced workers, a prediction that is supported by the data. I conclude that policy makers should consider extending unemployment insurance coverage during recessions to new labour market entrants.

Exploring factors contributing to young workers’ vulnerability to work-related harm

New Zealand has experienced significant increases in youth employment rates in the last 20 years with 40 per cent of people employed part-time. This age group has been associated with the second-highest rate of injury claims. At the current time, there is limited information on why young workers in New Zealand are more vulnerable to work-related harm. This project aimed to explore this with a convenience sample of young workers using an online survey. Participants represented a diverse ethnic population but the sample was predominately female. In total, 32.7 per cent of respondents had received no occupational health and safety (OHS) training when starting work. Fifty-seven per cent of the sample thought that OHS was valued by their employer. Interestingly, 63 per cent of the sample said they would be confident about speaking up about an OHS issue with most being willing to speak to their manager. In relation to stress, the analysis identified that there was an association between feeling stressed and being unable to follow OHS protocols (p=0.05). While this was a small exploratory study, suggestions made to improve OHS include clear and open communication between workers and employers, improved access to OHS resources and continuous and in-depth training.

Features of the Regulation of Labor Migration in Uzbekistan

Almost all countries of the world are involved in the migration process, and Uzbekistan is no exception. While our country is involved in the international migration process, including labor migration, one of the main factors is the large number of young workers and the underdeveloped domestic labor market. Therefore, our citizens are working abroad in the world labor market.

Lost in recessions: youth employment and earnings in Spain

Young workers in Spain face the unprecedented impact of the Great Recession and the COVID-19 crisis in short sequence. Moreover, they have also experienced a deterioration in their employment and earnings over the last three decades. In this paper, we document this evolution and adopt a longitudinal approach to show that employment and earnings losses suffered by young workers during recessions are not made up in the subsequent expansions. We also estimate the size of the scarring effects of entering the job market in a recession for college-educated workers during their first decade in the labor market. Our empirical estimates indicate that while there is some evidence of scarring effects, the driving force is a trend worsening of youth labor market outcomes.

The impact of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment and firm revenues in Hungary

Relying on the Labour Force Survey and the monthly revenue statistics of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, we assess the immediate economic impact of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first two quarters of 2020. We first analyse the role of job loss, working time reduction, downtime, and telework in adjustment to the crisis. The findings reveal an even more serious setback and increase in inequality than in 2008–2009. School leavers, young workers and unskilled laborers were particularly severely affected. Graduates were less likely to lose their jobs, more likely to switch to telework, and their employers faced a smaller decrease in sales revenue. The revenues of foreign-owned exporters fell more than the average in March but recovered by June. The decline experienced by businesses in the Hungarian ownership was slower but more prolonged.

Young Workers in Transition: Explaining the Density Gap by a Life-course Perspective

A common challenge for all trade unions in most of the Western world is the growing trade union density gap between young and older workers. In this paper, we examine the generational trade union gap with point of departure in the Danish case. Our data stem from two large surveys (APL II & III).We find that young workers are not more individualized; to the contrary, unorganized young workers have a growing collective mind-set. Through the lens of a life-course perspective, our data show that young workers have a growing ‘fluidic’ working life. Many young workers also take jobs in parts of the labor market with weak trade unions representation not allowing them to get in contact with trade unions representatives.

Refugees at Work: The Preventative Role of Psychosocial Safety Climate against Workplace Harassment, Discrimination and Psychological Distress

It is widely recognised that employment is vital in assisting young refugees’ integration into a new society. Drawing on psychosocial safety climate (PSC) theory, this research investigated the effect of organisational climate on young refugee workers’ mental health (psychological distress) through stressful social relational aspects of work (e.g., harassment, discrimination). Drawing on data from 635 young refugees aged between 15 and 26 in South Australia, 116 refugees with paid work were compared with 519 refugee students without work, and a sample of young workers from Australian Workplace Barometer (AWB) data (n = 290). The results indicated that refugees with paid work had significantly lower psychological distress compared with refugees with no paid work, but more distress than other young Australian workers. With respect to workplace harassment and abuse, young refugee workers reported significantly more harassment due to their ongoing interaction and engagement with mainstream Australian workers compared with unemployed refugees. Harassment played a vital role in affecting psychological health in refugees (particularly) and other young workers. While refugee youth experienced harassment at work, overall, their experiences suggest that their younger age upon arrival enabled them to seek and find positive employment outcomes. Although PSC did not differ significantly between the employed groups, we found that it likely negatively influenced psychological distress through the mediating effects of harassment and abuse. Hence, fostering pathways to successful employment and creating safe work based on high PSC and less harassment are strongly recommended to improve refugees’ mental health and adaptation.

Evaluation of an Online Training for Supervisors of Young Agricultural Workers

Adolescents and young adults (<25 years) working in agriculture are at greater risk of injury than youth working in other industries. Supervisors play an important role in protecting these young workers who lack workplace experience and whose bodies and brains are still developing. A theoretically based approach was used to develop an online training for supervisors of young agricultural workers. The training addresses an expanded view of occupational safety that not only addresses injury prevention, but also focuses on health promotion and worker well-being using a Total Worker Health approach. A pre-post/post study design was used to evaluate the training. Questionnaires included demographics, workplace characteristics, knowledge, beliefs about protecting young workers, and supervisors’ communication behaviors. One-hundred-eighty-two participants completed all parts of the efficacy trial. A post-test administered immediately after completing the training, indicated that supervisors had greater understanding of the risks to young workers and at 3-month follow-up were more likely to engage in communication behaviors to protect the safety and health of young workers. Positive changes in when, how, and under what circumstances supervisors talk about safety and health occurred. Establishing patterns of protective behaviors in the workplace can have lifelong impact, particularly among young workers.

Screening and Signaling Non-Cognitive Skills: Experimental Evidence from Uganda

We study how employers and job-seekers respond to credible information on skills that are difficult to observe, and how this affects matching in the labor market. We experimentally vary whether certificates on workers’ non-cognitive skills are disclosed to both sides of the market during job interviews between young workers and small firms in Uganda. The certificates cause workers to increase their labor market expectations, while high-ability managers revise their assessments of the workers’ skills upwards. The reaction in terms of beliefs leads to an increase in positive assortative matching and to higher earnings for workers, conditional on employment.

Pengaruh Hubungan Self Disclosure dan Kepribadian Extraversion terhadap Keterampilan Komunikasi Interpersonal Young Worker di Jakarta

This study was to determine the effect of self-disclosure and extraversion personality on the interpersonal communication skills of young workers in Jakarta. The approach used by researchers in this study is a quantitative approach which is then followed by a correlational method and the researcher also distributes questionnaires to 150 respondents spread across the Jakarta area. Data analysis used SPSS version 24 software. The researcher found that there was a significant influence between self-disclosure and extraversion personality on the interpersonal communication skills of young workers in Jakarta. From the two dependent variables, it turns out that the extraversion personality variable has a greater influence than self-disclosure on the communication skills of young workers. Thus, it can be concluded that interpersonal communication is influenced by self-disclosure and extraversion personality.Penelitian ini untuk mengetahui pengaruh self-disclosure dan kepribadian extraversion terhadap keterampilan komunikasi interpersonal young worker di Jakarta. Pendekatan yang digunakan oleh peneliti dalam penelitian ini adalah pendekatan kuantitatif yang kemudian diikuti oleh metode korelasional dan peneliti juga melakukan penyebaran kuisioner pada 150 responden yang tersebar di wilayah Jakarta. Analisis data menggunakan software SPSS versi 24. Peneliti menemukan adanya pengaruh antara self-disclosure dan kepribadian extraversion terhadap keterampilan komunikasi interpersonal young worker di Jakarta yang cukup signifikan. Dari kedua variabel dependen ternyata variabel kepribadian extraversion memiliki pengaruh yang lebih besar dibandingkan self-disclosure terhadap keterampilan komunikasi young worker. Dengan demikian dapat disimpulkan bahwa komunikasi interpersonal dipengaruhi oleh self-disclosure dan kepribadian extraversion.