Impact of Work Experience and Training in the Current and Previous Occupations on Earnings: Micro Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth

In the empirical literature on work experience, job tenure, training and earnings, only one previous study has made a distinction between the effects of work experience in the current occupation and work experience in previous ones, and no study has made the distinction with respect to training. Yet it is reasonable to hypothesize that the distinction is important. Using data from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, it is found that the returns to work experience in the current occupation with previous employers are similar to those to work experience with the current employer, and that tenure has no independent effect. Similarly it is found that the distinction between training for current and previous occupations gives better results than a distinction between training for current and previous employers. It is found that work experience, classroom training and vocational institute training for the current occupation have highly significant effects on earnings, with work experience having by far the largest absolute impact. Apart from high school vocational institute training, which actually has a significantly negative effect on the earnings of those with high cognitive test scores, the previous-occupation counterparts do not have significant effects.