Low-wage jobs: a means for employment integration of the unemployed? Evidence from administrative data in Germany and Austria

"Does the low wage sector serve as a stepping stone towards integration into better-paid jobs or at least towards integration of jobless people into employment? There is evidence for a 'low-wage trap' and for a high risk of low-wage earners to get unemployed, but this may also be due...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Grün, Carola, Mahringer, Helmut, Rhein, Thomas
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Nürnberg 2011
IAB
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19183070124919012529-Low-wage-jobs-a-means-for-empl.htm
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author Grün, Carola
Mahringer, Helmut
Rhein, Thomas
author_facet Grün, Carola
Mahringer, Helmut
Rhein, Thomas
collection Library items
description "Does the low wage sector serve as a stepping stone towards integration into better-paid jobs or at least towards integration of jobless people into employment? There is evidence for a 'low-wage trap' and for a high risk of low-wage earners to get unemployed, but this may also be due to sorting effects and not to low-wage work itself. The present paper contributes to this debate analysing employment spells of male low-wage earners who had been unemployed before, with methods of continuous-time event history analysis. The present data have been retrieved from two large administrative micro-data sources: the IAB employment sample (IABS) for Germany, and a combination of social security data from the Austrian Social Insurance Institutions. Two possible exits of low-wage spells are focused on: exits to higher-paid employment (upward mobility vs. persistence), and exits to unemployment ('no pay-low pay cycle'). The results show shorter spell durations in Austria, pointing to a considerably higher fluctuation and labour turnover in the Austrian labour market. The influence of individual and firm-related characteristics and of the individual unemployment history on exit probabilities and the role of duration dependence in both countries is investigated. With regard to upward mobility, no convincing evidence for 'true' duration dependence is found, at least for Germany. As to the risk of falling back into unemployment, the results suggest that even low-wage workers can accumulate job-related human capital favouring employment integration over time."
format TEXT
geographic Austria
Germany
id 19183070124919012529_8ece4fb84ec341569fecc3e3d3eb7c54
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19183070124919012529_8ece4fb84ec341569fecc3e3d3eb7c54
is_hierarchy_title Low-wage jobs: a means for employment integration of the unemployed? Evidence from administrative data in Germany and Austria
language English
physical 43 p.
Digital
publishDate 2011
publisher Nürnberg
IAB
spellingShingle Grün, Carola
Mahringer, Helmut
Rhein, Thomas
comparison
low wages
statistics
unemployment
Low-wage jobs: a means for employment integration of the unemployed? Evidence from administrative data in Germany and Austria
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=115263593344
title Low-wage jobs: a means for employment integration of the unemployed? Evidence from administrative data in Germany and Austria
topic comparison
low wages
statistics
unemployment
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19183070124919012529-Low-wage-jobs-a-means-for-empl.htm