Changing career paths: risks and opportunities for men and women Some results from secondary analyse

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Changing career paths risks and opportunities
for men and women Some results from
secondary analyses of the European Working
Conditions Survey

• Greet Vermeylen
• Research manager, Monitoring and Survey unit,
  Eurofound
• WORKS conference Fragmentation? The future of
  work in Europe in a global economy
• Rome, 8/9 October 2008

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Some comments on the two papers

• Putting the changes in career paths into a
  perspective of general findings from EWCS
• how do men and women work in the EU,
• do they work differently, have different careers
• how is work situated within their life, the life
  of their family,
• transitions (and life course perspective)
• non standard forms of work and more flexibility
  on the labour market
• challenges for particular groups of workers

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Looking at 15 yrs of changes in the EU Men and
women at work

• More people work in all sectors however relative
  decline in manufacturing industry and increase in
  service industry
• Increasing proportion of women on the labour
  market (44 of the workforce)
• Accompanied by a prevalence of part time (80
  of part timers are women)
• But high segregation in the labour market remains
• Occupational and sectoral segregation
• only 23 of workers work in gender mixed
  occupations
• Also pay, time, employment gender gaps persist

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The rise of dual earner families
The evolution of the labour market situation of
families in the EU. Source OECD
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Employment and part-time by gender
100
Employment rate - Men
90
80
70
Employment rate - Women
60

50
40
Part-time work rate - Women
30
20
Part-time work rate - Men
10
0
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65
Source Eurostat, LFS
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Increase in non-standard employment

• More part-time work (18,5)
• 33 of women and 8 of men work part-time
• More temporary employment (14)
• More second jobs (4)
• but big differences over countries
• Questions
• effects of these non-standard forms of work on
  working conditions and on career paths
• Is non standard a permanent situation or are
  transitions possible? How easy?
• And what about (employment and social protection)
  rights attached to these non standard forms of
  work

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Rise in non-standard employment in the European
Union, 1991-2005 ()
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Self-employed
Part-time
Temporary
Second job
employment
1991 (EU12)
1995 (EU15)
2000 (EU15)
2005 (EU25)
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But some differences over countries
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Parttime work varies considerably across Europe
(EWCS)
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Working time

• Reduction of working hours due to a combination
  of
• Increase of part time 33 of women and 8 of
  men work part time
• Reduction of long weekly hours (gt48 hrs) 15 of
  workers, 44 of the self-employed
• Regular working hours and working week, still the
  norm
• 69 of women and 56 of men have fixed working
  hours
• Men get more flexibility from their employers,
  and are more willing to work more flexibly. Women
  usually prefer predictable and regular working
  hours
• Women are usually more satisfied with the
  work-life balance
• The choices are made before (at the kitchen
  table)

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Working time flexibility does not increase as
quickly as one tends to believe
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Some questions

• Diversification of working time arrangements
  facilitates labour market participation work to
  fit personal circumstances
• but flexible working arrangements only
  spreading slowly
• Part-time work is the dominant form of flexible
  working time. Highly gendered. Quality work?
• Work-life balance satisfaction increases as
  volume of worked hours decreases

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And reflecting deeper upon effects

• still scarring effects from fragmented careers
• Establishment survey HR managers as well as
  employee representatives indicate negative
  consequences of part-time work
• How to deal with child bearing and rearing
• Back to work (or not) very differently organised
  in different countries
• Part-time
• Child care facilities, incl. out of school care
• Parental leave for men and women effect on
  careers
• (Engendered) career choices at the kitchen table
• life course project
• UE spells/career breaks have a significant
  adverse effect on future career, but speed of
  recovery depends on system.
• Also possibility of these alternative
  possibilities might allow for LM attachment
  rather than drop out (but also here differences)
• Social protection rights of fragmented careers

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Going deeper into the reflection of impact of
more flexibility for different kinds of workers

• We have developed four indicators to measure and
  analyse the security dimension of flexicurity
• Job security risk of loosing the current
  occupation ? objective and subjective job
  insecurity
• decreases as education increases
• decreases as age increases.
• no difference by gender
• Employment security risk of not being able to
  get a new job in the event of loosing the current
  one ? employability
• It increases with education
• it increases with tenure up to about 20 years,
  then it decreases
• once controlling for all this, it decreases with
  past experience (ageing)
• It is lower for female workers
• Income security risk of not being able to keep
  the same standard of living in the event of non
  employment? vulnerability
• Low-educated individuals appear to be the most
  vulnerable group,
• Prime age least vulnerable.
• No difference by gender
• Combination security (risk of not being able to
  reconcile work and family life). We do not
  consider it an indicator but a dimension of
  analysis.

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A possible clustering of negative features

• When an individual experiences high objective job
  insecurity, also his/her subjective job
  insecurity is likely to be high, and viceversa.
• When an individual experiences high vulnerability
  s/he is also likely to experience high objective
  and subjective job insecurity.
• Individuals experiencing high employability are
  also likely to experience low levels of
  (objective and subjective) job insecurity and
  vulnerability
• The correlations are stronger among female
  workers
• The correlations become weaker as education
  increases
• The correlations become weaker as age increases

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Linked to macro factors

• Workers in countries with more generous
  unemployment benefits feel less insecure
• Employability is higher in countries where
  lifelong learning participation rates are higher
• Workers seem to be less vulnerable in countries
  characterized by a higher decommodifying
  welfare system

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Thank you

• More info www.eurofound.europa.eu
• Email gve_at_eurofound.europa.eu

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Objective job insecurity

• We quantify the expectations regarding the future
  tenure in ones current job using objective
  indicators, such as
• type of contract
• elapsed tenure
• public / private sector
• small / large firm
• Individual objective job insecurity
• decreases as education increases
• decreases as age increases.
• no difference by gender
• EWCS samples working individuals this implies
  that women in the survey (working women) are more
  selected, more able (with respect to abilities
  valued by the labour market) than the average
  woman in the population.

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Subjective job insecurity

• Asking directly workers about the perception they
  have about the stability of their current
  employment relationship.
• How much do you agree or disagree with I might
  lose my job in the next 6 months
• no difference by gender
• it decreases with increasing education
• it decreases as age increases
• Job insecurity feelings decrease as income
  increases

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Employability

• Chances to get a new job in the event of loosing
  the current one
• elements accumulated at school and during all
  previous job experiences (education, experience
  and tenure are well known measures of human
  capital)
• elements accumulated on the job (the specific
  contribution of the EWCS)
• Factor analysis produces three factors
• learning
• training
• task rotation
• Also summarized in one on-the-job total
  employability

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Employability

• It increases with education
• it increases with tenure up to about 20 years,
  then it decreases
• once controlling for all this, it decreases with
  past experience (ageing)
• It is lower for female workers.
• While the formal training element of
  employability is higher for women, the other two
  factors are higher for men.
• Training and task rotation decrease with age,
  while learning is highest among prime age workers

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Vulnerability

• Vulnerability is the potential inability of
  people to withstand income losses eventually
  associated with job loss, sickness, maternity ...
• Household structure plus the institutional safety
  net eventually available to the individual in
  need.
• Low-educated individuals appear to be the most
  vulnerable group,
• Prime age least vulnerable.
• No difference by gender

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Vulnerability and decommodification
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