Workers’ movement out of declining occupations in Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland

Publication type

Journal Article

Author

Publication date

December 15, 2014

Summary:

The employment structure undergoes constant change. Certain occupations grow while
others decline under the pressure of technological advances, internationalization and welfare state
reforms. This evolution at the aggregate level has been well documented. Our knowledge of how
macro-level change in the employment structure is brought about through micro-level career
adjustments is less extensive. Drawing on panel data, this paper examines the types of workers most
likely to leave occupations that have declined over the past 20 years, and the most likely destination of
these exits in Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland. Overall, we find that women are more likely
than men to leave a declining occupation, and the most likely route out of declining occupations for
female workers is towards low paid growing occupations. Clerical workers are more likely to exit to
high paid growing occupations than production workers, and male production workers are at higher
risk than female clerks of exiting into unemployment.

Published in

European Sociological Review

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 30 , p.685 -701

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcu066

ISSN

2667215

Subject

Notes

Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*

#522675

News

Latest findings, new research

Publications search

Search all research by subject and author

Podcasts

Researchers discuss their findings and what they mean for society

Projects

Background and context, methods and data, aims and outputs

Events

Conferences, seminars and workshops

Survey methodology

Specialist research, practice and study

Taking the long view

ISER's annual report

Themes

Key research themes and areas of interest