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Have the relative employment prospects for the low-skilled deteriorated after all?

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  • Knut Røed
  • Morten Nordberg

Abstract

Has the relative unemployment propensity for the low-skilled increased during the 1990’s? We address this question empirically, based on two notions of ‘low skills’; i) low education, and ii) low ability, conditioned on education and work experience. Ability is identified by previous earnings. Evaluated by the education-based measure, we find that unemployment propensity has not developed unfavourably for the low-skilled. Evaluated by the ability-based measure, it has. We uncover a steady deterioration of employment prospects for persons with low ability relative to others with similar formal qualifications. The adverse employment effects of being low-skilled are stronger the higher is formal education. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2004

Suggested Citation

  • Knut Røed & Morten Nordberg, 2004. "Have the relative employment prospects for the low-skilled deteriorated after all?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 17(1), pages 67-82, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:17:y:2004:i:1:p:67-82
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-003-0120-y
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    1. Layard, R. & Nickell, S., 1991. "Unemployment in the OECD Countries," Economics Series Working Papers 99130, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    2. Marco Manacorda & Barbara Petrongolo, 1999. "Skill Mismatch and Unemployment in OECD Countries Marco Manacorda," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 66(262), pages 181-207, May.
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    6. Nickell, Stephen & Bell, Brian, 1995. "The Collapse in Demand for the Unskilled and Unemployment across the OECD," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 11(1), pages 40-62, Spring.
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    Cited by:

    1. Roed, Knut, 2005. "Egalitarian wage policies, unemployment and skill-biased technological change," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 375-387, December.
    2. M. Gulenay Ongan Baskaya & Erkan Erdil, 2003. "Technological Change and ICTs in OECD Countries," STPS Working Papers 0301, STPS - Science and Technology Policy Studies Center, Middle East Technical University, revised Jan 2003.
    3. Bernt Bratsberg & Oddbjørn Raaum & Knut Røed, 2010. "When Minority Labor Migrants Meet the Welfare State," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(3), pages 633-676, July.
    4. Ekhaugen, Tyra, 2005. "Extracting the causal component from the intergenerational correlation in unemployment," Memorandum 21/2005, Oslo University, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    C31; J64; Skill-biased technical change; relative unemployment rates;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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