Marginal employment: Skill requirements and competitive conditions in industries.

Autor/inn/en	Alda, Holger; Rohrbach, Daniela
Titel	Marginal employment: Skill requirements and competitive conditions in industries.
Quelle	Mailand (2009), 32 S.Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Erhebung; Panel; Organisationswandel; Determinante; Technologische Entwicklung; Arbeitsbeziehung; Branche; Globalisierung; Nebentätigkeit; Personalanpassung; Personaleinsatz; Unternehmen; Arbeitsplatz; Beschäftigungsstruktur; Geringfügige Beschäftigung; Kündigungsschutz; Qualifikationsanforderung; Qualifikationsstruktur; Arbeitszeit; BIBB/BAuA-Erhebung; IAB-Betriebspanel; Qualität; Betrieb; Institution; Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung; Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung
Abstract	Marginal employment in Germany is characterized by low earnings (maximum 400 Euro) and only marginal claims for social security benefits. Between 2004 and 2008 the proportion of marginally employed workers rose from about seven to 15 percent of the total workforce, meaning that there are around seven million marginal workers in Germany today. From an individual-level perspective marginal employment might be seen as a chance for lower skilled people to (re-)enter the labor market. However, since the quality of marginal jobs seem to be rather worse compared to 'regular' employment, and that it is connected with only small claims for social security benefits, people are expected to avoid marginal employment. From a firm or industry perspective hiring marginal employed workers is theoretically not clear as well. On the one hand marginally employed workers increase firms' (or industries') numerical flexibility. On the other hand it does not seem to be an appropriate tool for keeping or rising human capital. Moreover, the employers' perspective on marginal employment should vary with structural conditions of the market, i.e. skill demand and supply relations. Connecting individual-level data with firm and industry information from other sources, the paper investigates in workers skills and higher economic units (firms, industries) as determinants for marginal employment simultaneously, applying multilevel analysis. The individual-level data come from the BIBB/BAuA-Survey of the Working Population on Qualifications and Working Conditions in Germany 2006 covering 20,000 individuals in the active workforce. As compared to many other surveys it includes rich information on job skill requirements and respondents' qualification as well as subjective assessments on the matching between the two. To study industry-related effects on workers' chance (or risk) to be marginally employed we rely on the IAB-Establishment-Panel covering about 16,000 German firms. Unlike administrative data, it includes a much greater set of relevant variables (such as e.g. competitive conditions, new technologies investments) and allows for considering the within-industry heterogeneity of firms. (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku).
Erfasst von	Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Nürnberg
Update	2013/2