Career Stability in 14 Finnish Industrial Employee Cohorts in 1988–2015

It is often argued that global competition and technological development have made industrial jobs more unstable. In this article, we ask how career stability has evolved in the Finnish forest, metal, and chemical industries, comparing 14 cohorts (age groups) by gender and educational level. We focus on industrial employees born in 1958–1971 and compare their career stability at ages 30–44 using Statistics Finland’s linked employer-employee data from 1988 to 2015 and an application of sequence analysis. We analyze career stability over time by examining annual main labor market statuses (employed, unemployed, student, disabled, retired, out of the labor force), adding estimators for workplace and industry changes. The results show no evidence of career destabilization across the cohorts, but they do reveal persistent inequalities between industrial employees with low and high levels of education, and between men and women.

Career stability in turbulent times: A cross-cohort study of mid-careers in Finland

In this article, we investigate whether the mid-career stability of Finnish men and women has changed for the birth cohorts 1958 to 1972 and, if so, what the driving forces are behind such changes. We analyse career stability during a 15-year period following the age of 30 using ‘career turbulence’ indicators. To identify the impact of cyclical and structural changes in the labour market, we analyse the association between initial employment status and sector with subsequent career stability. We distinguish between sectors that are exposed to a greater or lesser extent to global competition, those that are characterised by goods production or service provision, and those that are part of the market or non-market sector. In a series of OLS regression and regression decomposition analyses, we also control for the impact of education, regional unemployment and family-formation processes. The results show little change in mid-career stability across cohorts. Stability increased somewhat when only including transitions between employment and non-employment, whereas slight destabilisation was observed when accounting for changes between jobs. The findings indicate that the small changes in stability across cohorts were mostly driven by structural changes in the labour market, albeit with different mechanisms for men and women.

Talent Management and its Relationship to Career Stability among Academic Leaders at Al-Hussein Bin Talal University

This study aimed to identify the level of applying talent management and achieving career stability among academicleaders at Al-Hussein Bin Talal University (AHU), and to investigate the relation between talent management and itsdomains with career stability. The study population consisted of all the (55) administrative academics in Al-HusseinBin Talal University occupying positions: Dean, Vice Dean, and Head of Department. The analytical approach wasused to develop the study tools and the descriptive approach to determine the level of applying talent managementand the degree of career stability. To achieve the study objectives, two tools were used: applying talent managementand achieving career satisfaction where its validity and reliability calculated. The results showed that means fortalent management ranged between (3.236-3.448) with medium agreement; the highest among them was the domainof (talents acquisition), followed by the domain of (talents development), while the lowest was the talentsmaintenance domain. The total mean was (3.344) with a medium degree of agreement. The results also indicated thatthe means for the items of achieving career stability ranged between (3.218-4.273) with high and medium degrees ofagreement, and the mean for the total was (3.82) with a high degree of agreement.The results showed that correlation coefficients between the talent management and the career stability rangedbetween (0.685-0.799), which indicates that there is a positive relationship between them.

Changing Economic Conditions and Identity Formation in Adulthood

Identity formation in political and occupational domains was examined from young to middle adulthood based on an ongoing longitudinal study. In addition to the participants’ identity status (diffused, moratorium, foreclosed, achieved), we assessed their perceived importance of politics, future orientation, and career stability four times in adulthood, at ages 27, 36, 42, and 50. The number of participants varied between analyses, from 168 to 291. Changes in the economic situation in Finland from 1986 to 2009 provided a context for the study. Data collections at ages 36 (in 1995) and 50 (in 2009) took place during economic recessions, and at age 42 (in 2001) during an economic boom. The results were discussed from both age-graded and history-graded perspectives. Developmental trends in political and occupational identity were reversed across age and changes in the economic situation. Political identity was at its lowest level and occupational identity was at its highest level at age 42 during the economic boom. Political identity progressed at a time of economic recession at age 50, whereas occupational identity regressed. In women, identity changes were associated with personal career stability. The perceived importance of politics increased concurrently with political identity achievement. During the recession when they were age 50, women tended to worry about future financial problems, while men perceived their future depending decreasingly on themselves and increasingly on the world situation. The results indicate that macro-level economic conditions may have psychological implications on people’s conceptions of themselves that are worth considering in developmental studies.