1. Impact of social networks on the labor market inequalities and school-to-work transitionsMahmut Özer, Matjaž Perc, 2021, izvirni znanstveni članek Opis: Countries invest in education systems in order to increase the quality of their human capital. In this context, it is seen that especially after the expansion of the higher education systems, countries try to increase higher education graduation rates in order to improve the quality of human resources in the labor market. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to facilitate the transitions from school-to-work, and to increase social welfare by meeting the human resources needs of the labor market. The facilitation of school-to-work transitions has a direct impact on youth unemployment. School-to-work transitions are influenced not only by the quality of education from primary to higher education but also by the dynamics of the labor market. Social network analysis can provide important insights into this dynamics, and in doing so reveal that there are indeed many factors that play a key role in determining who gets a job and why, including, first and foremost, social contacts. An analysis of job search channels reveals that partners, friends, and relatives are those social contacts that are most decisive for employment outcomes. Research reveals that employers use social-contact-based reference channels much more frequently than formal channels for recruitment. Thus, employers frequently use such reference channels in recruitment. It has also been shown that the use of social-contact channels reduces employers' costs of finding suitable employees and increases productivity since employees hired through these channels also stay longer in their firms. We here explore the full potential of social network analysis to better our understanding of school-to-work transitions, to reveal in no uncertain terms the importance of social contacts, and to show how these insights can be leveraged to level the labor market for all involved. An important take-home message is that the labor market dynamics is strongly affected by the Matthew effect, such that the inequalities and the gaps between opportunities only grow and widen as the underlying social networks evolve. It is therefore important to mitigate these effects well before school-to-work transitions come into play, namely during the education. In particular, we assert that minimizing the inequalities during education should effectively mitigate the uneven impact of social networks on school-to-work transitions.
Ključne besede: employment, higher education, inequality, labor market, Matthew effect, social network
Objavljeno v DKUM: 04.10.2024; Ogledov: 0; Prenosov: 7
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3. Professional competences of graduates as a labour market mechanism for aligning business school curriculum reform with the Bologna declaration principlesMilan Jurše, Polona Tominc, 2008, drugi znanstveni članki Opis: Higher education institutions in Europe have been recently faced with a rapidly changing external framework for developing new study programmes and their curricula. The main contribution of our paper is to provide a better insight into the skills and competences of business school graduates needed at the labour market, as seen by employers, graduates of business schools, and academics. The paper attempts to enhance our understanding of different aspects of curriculum revision by incorporating professional competences into the early stages of the curriculum development process. In this paper also the experience of the Faculty of Economics and Business from Slovenia, which has transformed its bachelor and master study programmes according to the principles set out in Bologna Declaration, is presented and discussed.
Ključne besede: employment, labor market, education, business schools, lifelong learning, Bologna declaration
Objavljeno v DKUM: 04.07.2017; Ogledov: 1110; Prenosov: 126
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4. SOLVING THE PROBLEM OF UNEMPLOYMENTEva Lorenčič, 2013, diplomsko delo Opis: Unemployment negatively affects the government budget and inflicts costs on the unemployed individuals as well as on the society as a whole in many ways. The direct costs of unemployment for the state budget arise due to the benefits paid out to the unemployed, and due to foregone direct and indirect taxes. On the level of an individual, nonmonetary costs are a multiple of the monetary ones, which indicates that employment plays a central role in a person’s well-being. Unemployment has a spill-over effect on the society as a whole and affects not only the unemployed, but also the employed population, particularly in the areas experiencing high unemployment rates.
We take the case study of Germany, the country often used as a quintessence of how to overcome the problem of massive unemployment. Before the four Hartz reforms, which were implemented in years 2003, 2004 and 2005, Germany was characterized as the »sick man of Europe« owing to its exploding levels of unemployment, dysfunctional labor market, unsustainable social budget, and rising public debt. As the reforms were put into force, the situation in the German labor market underwent a 360° turnaround and became portrayed as the »German economic miracle«. The true effects of the reforms fully transpired in the economic and financial crisis of 2008/2009, when most countries experienced escalating unemployment rates, while Germany kept them at bay. Studies show that flexible working-time arrangements and short-time work have played a major role in inhibiting lay-offs in German companies during the recent crisis, and hence in preventing a spike in unemployment rates, which we use as one of the points that validate our Model of employment. The government subsidies made it possible for companies to reduce the working hours of their employees instead of laying them off. An important feature of the German labor market is a comparatively high percentage of part-time workers (around 25% in years 2006–2011), which also explains the low unemployment rates Germany has been recording since the reforms were introduced. The reforms cut the amount and duration of unemployment benefits, which gave the unemployed more incentives to find a job. A negative aspect of the reform may be an increased divide between the core work force and the marginal workers, which intensifies social differences and is currently on the agenda of German politics. Also some researches stress the importance of social cohesion and that the risks and opportunities in the labor market should be more evenly distributed. In the accompanying explanations to the Model of employment, some of the successful measures of Germany’s Hartz reforms may be spotted, while at the same time we avoid the »mistakes« of these reforms, thus making sure that social differences among people would narrow down upon the real-life implementation of the Model.
When the number of job vacancies sharply exceeds the number of unemployed, and when there are poor prospects of new job openings in the near future, the only viable solution to the problem of unemployment is to reduce the working hours of the existing employees. The Model of employment that we develop represents a possible solution to the problem of unemployment and thus addresses the need to reduce the costs of unemployment to the unemployed individual, to the state budget, and to the society as a whole. The crux of the Model is a re-distribution of the total number of workplaces and total annual working hours among the »new actively employed population«, which comprises all persons having the potential to become or stay employed or self-employed in a given year. The model allows for a flexible arrangement of working hours – from four and up to eight hours per employee per day. Our solution will release the working hours, make them available to the currently unemployed, and hence ensure a more equitable distribution of income and work load amongst the population. In addition, as the workers will be less tired and stressed-out, their productivity will in
Ključne besede: unemployment, labor force, labor market, part-time employment, full-time employment, labor market flexibility, costs of unemployment, Hartz reforms
Objavljeno v DKUM: 30.08.2013; Ogledov: 2601; Prenosov: 171
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