Research project Labour markets have changed rapidly in recent decades, both in terms of size and composition of economic activities. A problem that has arisen is the geographical discrepancy between where jobs are created and destroyed, but also a lack of knowledge of how old skills and competencies can be bridged to new professions. This project intends to analyze labour mobility and skill matching after redundancies with regard to both supply and demand in labour markets.
Regional labour markets are changing rapidly due to the pressures posed by technological development and globalization. In the last decades, we have seen a divergence between both regions and workers. Labour markets are becoming increasingly polarized, even in Sweden, which is partly explained by a changing composition of jobs and an increasing share of low-wage jobs. In the same time, also regions show big differences in employment resilience, absorptive capacity and growth.
Regional labour markets are changing rapidly due to the pressures posed by technological development and globalization. In the last decades, we have seen a divergence between both regions and workers. Labour markets are becoming increasingly polarized, even in Sweden, which is partly explained by a changing composition of jobs and an increasing share of low-wage jobs. In the same time, also regions show big differences in employment resilience, absorptive capacity and growth.
One major problem is a spatial mismatch of where the jobs are created and destroyed, but also a lack of understanding on how to bridge old skills and competences to new occupations. As stated by Pissarides (2010:397), “The idea is that the job search underlying unemployment in the official definitions is not about looking for a good wage, but about looking for a good job match”. Hence, one of the major problems that the European labour markets are facing is that of skill matching.
The aim of this project is therefore to analyse the process of labour matching after redundancy, considering both the supply and the demand of the labour market. This will be done by (a) assessing how the region can provide structures that facilities good skill-matching while still allowing for a productive diversification of the regional economy, and (b) analysing different groups of marginalised workers’ labour market trajectories following a lay-off. A starting point of the project is that occupations (as a proxy for skills) is the prime analytical unit rather than industries or technologies.
To answer these questions, I will use register data originating from Statistics Sweden. This data has a previously unprecedented level of detail and comes with a unique time-series structure. The project will contribute to a growing and exciting body of literature, that are investigating fruitful ways for regions and workers to be able to cope with an economy in transformation.
