Qualification and employment opportunities

Abstract

"The paper describes both the development of unemployment and that of employment between 1991 and 1997. As the change in the structure of the economy has taken place not only with regard to sectors but to increased extent also with regard to qualifications, one of the main points of focus of this paper is the different labour market positions of individual qualification groups. The following shows first of all that the employment crisis of the 1990s did not run the same course for all qualification levels. The great losers of this development were workers who had not successfully completed vocational training. But also those who had successfully undergone vocational training or had passed a course at technical college were affected more and more by employment cuts. Graduates from universities and polytechnics, on the other hand, were clear winners. As clear gender-specific differences also emerge on examination of the labour market development, they are in addition discussed separately for men and for women. Furthermore the sectoral structural change is focused upon as well as its considerable influence on these developments, as the employment crisis of the 1990s affected above all the manufacturing sector, and a large number of jobs were lost there, whereas in the service sector new jobs were created, though only on a small scale. Then the changes in the distribution of the volume of work are shown, since they did not run the same course for all qualification levels either. The paper also looks into the question as to the extent to which the employment gains of graduates correspond to an increase in 'inadequate' graduate employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Rauch, A. & Reinberg, A. (2000): Qualification and employment opportunities. In: IAB Labour Market Research Topics No. 38, p. 1-24.