IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jlabrs/v45y2012i1p79-98.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Zu jung oder zu alt für eine Lehre? Altersdiskriminierung bei der Ausbildungsplatzvergabe

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Imdorf

Abstract

Two contrary effects determine how age influences access to apprenticeships: on the one hand, training companies increasingly hire older apprentices. On the other hand applicants who are too old, face difficulty in finding an apprenticeship place at all. The paper analysis the selecting companies’ motives in setting both the upper and lower age limits for new recruits. Referring to a conceptual framework of personnel selection drawn from the French sociology of conventions, the research question is investigated using secondary data analysis. Expert interviews with personnel managers in 60 small businesses from German-speaking Switzerland were interpreted using argument analysis. The findings show that most of the analysed training companies favour applicants who have not directly left school, but have usually spent one year in some kind of tiding-over arrangement. Despite this preference for ‘older’ candidates a significant minority of companies turns down applicants who have already reached a certain age. The network convention of workplace coordination gives rise to reservations towards too-young apprentices with regard to customer relations. In contrast, firms turn down older applicants because they believe they do not socially ‘fit in’, which can be interpreted through the domestic convention of coordination. These applicants are associated with a higher dropout risk, which would additionally entail costs to the firm in terms of the market convention. Having revealed the operations of age discrimination in hiring apprentices, the paper concludes that both the school leavers’ delayed start of training as well as the problems faced by older job applicants to access apprenticeships are in part caused by training companies and their multiple requirements for social coordination. Copyright Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Imdorf, 2012. "Zu jung oder zu alt für eine Lehre? Altersdiskriminierung bei der Ausbildungsplatzvergabe," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 45(1), pages 79-98, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:45:y:2012:i:1:p:79-98
    DOI: 10.1007/s12651-011-0093-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s12651-011-0093-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12651-011-0093-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eve Chiapello & Luc Boltanski, 2003. "Der neue Geist des Kapitalismus," Post-Print hal-00680087, HAL.
    2. Peter A. Riach & Judith Rich, 2010. "An Experimental Investigation of Age Discrimination in the English Labor Market," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 99-100, pages 169-185.
    3. Becker, Gary S., 1971. "The Economics of Discrimination," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226041162.
    4. Salais, Robert & Storper, Michael, 1992. "The Four 'Worlds' of Contemporary Industry," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 16(2), pages 169-193, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Krug von Nidda, Sophie & Söhn, Janina, 2022. "Ausbildungschancen von Jugendlichen mit Migrationshintergrund: Benachteiligung in betrieblichen Rekrutierungsprozessen vermeiden - Anregungen für Personalverantwortliche," Working Paper Forschungsförderung 258, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    2. Neugebauer, Martin & Daniel, Annabell, 2021. "Higher Education Non-Completion, Employers, and Labor Market Integration: Experimental Evidence," SocArXiv evm74, Center for Open Science.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christian Imdorf, 2012. "Zu jung oder zu alt für eine Lehre? Altersdiskriminierung bei der Ausbildungsplatzvergabe [Too-young or too-old for an apprenticeship? Age discrimination in hiring apprentices]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 45(1), pages 79-98, March.
    2. David Neumark, 2012. "Detecting Discrimination in Audit and Correspondence Studies," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(4), pages 1128-1157.
    3. Francisco Perales & Wojtek Tomaszewski, 2016. "Happier with the Same: Job Satisfaction of Disadvantaged Workers," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 685-708, December.
    4. Riach, Peter A. & Rich, Judy, 2007. "An Experimental Investigation of Age Discrimination in the Spanish Labour Market," IZA Discussion Papers 2654, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Judith K. Hellerstein & David Neumark, 2003. "Ethnicity, Language, and Workplace Segregation: Evidence from a New Matched Employer-Employee Data Set," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 71-72, pages 1-15.
    6. Anthony Edo & Nicolas Jacquemet & Constantine Yannelis, 2019. "Language skills and homophilous hiring discrimination: Evidence from gender and racially differentiated applications," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 349-376, March.
    7. Hirsch, Boris, 2007. "Joan Robinson Meets Harold Hotelling : A Dyopsonistic Explanation of the Gender Pay Gap," Discussion Papers 51, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    8. Louis Alessi, 1974. "Aneconomic analysis of government ownership and reculation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 1-42, September.
    9. David Bravo Urrutia & Sergio Urzúa & Claudia Sanhueza, 2007. "Is There Labor Market Discrimination Among Professionals In Chile? Lawyers, Doctors And Business-People," Working Papers wp264, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    10. Benjamin Bennett & Isil Erel & Léa H. Stern & Zexi Wang, 2020. "Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance," NBER Working Papers 27788, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Katie Meara & Francesco Pastore & Allan Webster, 2020. "The gender pay gap in the USA: a matching study," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 271-305, January.
    12. Yann Kossi & Jean-Yves Lesueur & Mareva Sabatier, 2016. "Publish or teach? The role of the scientific environment on academics’ multitasking," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(3), pages 487-506.
    13. Ponzo, Michela & Scoppa, Vincenzo, 2008. "The Use of Informal Networks in Italian Labor Markets: Efficiency or Favoritisms?," MPRA Paper 11764, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Lippens, Louis & Baert, Stijn & Derous, Eva, 2021. "Loss aversion in taste-based employee discrimination: Evidence from a choice experiment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    15. Bart Capéau & Lieve Eeman & Steven Groenez & Miet Lamberts, 2012. "Standardised Scores as a Way to measure and Compare Discrimination Across Dimensions," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2012-022, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    16. Daniela Andrén & Thomas Andrén, 2015. "Gender and occupational wage gaps in Romania: from planned equality to market inequality?," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-27, December.
    17. Gärtner, Debora & Grimm, Veronika & Lang, Julia & Stephan, Gesine, 2014. "Kollektive Lohnverhandlungen und der Gender Wage Gap : Befunde aus einer qualitativen Studie," IAB-Discussion Paper 201414, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    18. Dileni Gunewardena & Abdoulaye Seck, 2020. "Heterogeneity in entrepreneurship in developing countries: Risk, credit, and migration and the entrepreneurial propensity of youth and women," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(3), pages 713-725, August.
    19. Mick Brookes & Timothy Hinks & Duncan Watson, 2001. "Comparisons in Gender Wage Differentials and Discrimination between Germany and the United Kingdom," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 15(3), pages 393-414, September.
    20. Ramiro Rodríguez Revilla, 2013. "Equidad Laboral para Mujeres Mayores de 40 Años en Colombia," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0144, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ausbildungsbetriebe; Lehrlingsselektion; Konventionen; Alter; Diskriminierung; J71; M51; M53; Z13; Training company; Apprentice selection; Conventions; Age; Discrimination;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
    • M53 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Training
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:45:y:2012:i:1:p:79-98. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.