TY - JOUR

T1 - Occupational mobility in Europe during the crisis

T2 - Did the social elevator break?

AU - Pohlig, Matthias

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by a grant of the German Research Foundation (DFG) (grant number HE 2174/12-2 ).

PY - 2021/4

Y1 - 2021/4

N2 - Sudden, disruptive social change resulting from economic crises may affect occupational structure and mobility. However, studies on social mobility have concentrated on secular trends of social change while recent studies on the impact of the Great Recession and the Eurozone debt crisis have focused on unemployment and wages. Therefore, it is unclear what effect these economic crises had on occupational mobility. In this study, I sketch out a theory of occupational mobility during economic crises reviewing arguments for downgrading (threat of the ‘reserve army’), polarization (labour market segmentation) and upgrading (‘creative destruction’) from the literature. Then, I discuss how institutions in different types of market economies in Europe moderate these effects. Afterwards, I compare patterns of occupational mobility as movements between different skill levels in Europe before and during the Great Recession and the Eurozone crisis using longitudinal data from the EU-SILC for 27 European countries. First, I examine mobility rates; second, I fit a series of log-linear topological models to test whether upgrading, downgrading or polarization prevailed during the crisis. To account for differences in unemployment and re-employment risks, I include unemployment in the analysis. The results show that downward mobility in particular soared during the crisis, especially in the mixed market economies.

AB - Sudden, disruptive social change resulting from economic crises may affect occupational structure and mobility. However, studies on social mobility have concentrated on secular trends of social change while recent studies on the impact of the Great Recession and the Eurozone debt crisis have focused on unemployment and wages. Therefore, it is unclear what effect these economic crises had on occupational mobility. In this study, I sketch out a theory of occupational mobility during economic crises reviewing arguments for downgrading (threat of the ‘reserve army’), polarization (labour market segmentation) and upgrading (‘creative destruction’) from the literature. Then, I discuss how institutions in different types of market economies in Europe moderate these effects. Afterwards, I compare patterns of occupational mobility as movements between different skill levels in Europe before and during the Great Recession and the Eurozone crisis using longitudinal data from the EU-SILC for 27 European countries. First, I examine mobility rates; second, I fit a series of log-linear topological models to test whether upgrading, downgrading or polarization prevailed during the crisis. To account for differences in unemployment and re-employment risks, I include unemployment in the analysis. The results show that downward mobility in particular soared during the crisis, especially in the mixed market economies.

KW - Crisis

KW - Europe

KW - Occupational mobility

KW - Occupational structure

KW - Unemployment

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85095835440&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100549

DO - 10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100549

M3 - Article

VL - 72

JO - Research in Social Stratification and Mobility

JF - Research in Social Stratification and Mobility

SN - 0276-5624

M1 - 100549

ER -