Ph.D. Presentation at the University of Barcelona (January 28, 2016)

THE RELATIVE SUCCESS OF JOB-SEEKING PRACTICES

Young university graduates in Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

Selene Camargo CorreaPh.D. Dissertation

January 28, 2016Advisor: Prof. Marisol García

Dep. Teoria Sociològica i Metodologia de les Ciències Socials

1

OUTLINE

1. Research questions2. Theoretical framework

a. Employment culturesb. Hypothesesc. Case selection criteria

3. Research design and data collectiona. Pre-fieldingb. Post-fielding

4. Findingsa. Descriptive datab. Hypotheses testing

5. Contributions6. Suggestions for future research.

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I. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• What are the strategies that individuals follow to find a job? • What social factors determine the use and sequencing of

various strategies? • How do the labor market institutions, and culture shape job-

search strategies in different countries? and, • What is the impact that these strategies have on employment

achievement? 3

• Practices and strategies of labor market integration among a cohort of 23 to 29 years old university graduates, and

• the demand for particular skills by a sample of employers.

4


Mixed results

Direct applicationPersonal contacts

Source: Table 2.1. Sources of Job Information, pp. 19-20 (selected authors).

Granovetter (1974)

Lin, Vaughn and Ensel (1981)

Holzer (1988)

Osber (1993)

Addison and Portugal (2002)

Franzen and Hangartner (2006)

Allen and van der Velden (2011)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

18.2

44.5

22

19.9

12.1

24

16.8

21

17

39.7

27

52

20.8

Granovetter (1974)

Lin, Vaughn and Ensel (1981)

Holzer (1988)

Osber (1993)

Addison and Portugal (2002)

Franzen and Hangartner (2006)

Pellizzary (2010)

McDonald, Benton & Warner (2012)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

56.1

21.7

57

25.5

14.3

32

12.7

73

15

15.9

19.6

31

32.7

14.7

21

17

5

Cross-national variation in job-finding

Source: Figure 1.4. Job-Finding Methods, By Survey Data, pp. 11.


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II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The influential work of Mark Granovetter (1974, 1995)• Many workers find their jobs through social contacts and

not just through formal channels;• Social networks allow jobseekers to gather better

information on the availability and characteristics of jobs, which then result in better wages and higher job satisfaction;

• Weak ties (friends, acquaintances) provide better information on the labor market than do strong ties.

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• A market can be shaped by both moral values and by social structure factors -class and family strucure (Zelizer 1983, 1985).

• The economy as «field», as a structure of relations between groups that provide cognitive elements to interpret the actions of others (Fligstein 2001a:15)

• «Employment systems», models of organizing careers and work that structure labor market interaction (Neil Fligstein 2001:101–116).


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Economic sociology’s emphasis on the social organizacion of markets

• Economic action is embedded both in networks and culture;• One’s understanding of how labor markets work is shaped…

• By the experience of self and members of one’s social milieu, and • By the social organization of the job market itself


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EMPLOYEMENT CULTURES

Graduate job-seeking

Interpersonal ties

Individual characteristics

Institutional connections

Social Organization of Markets

School-to-work linkages

The demands of the graduate labor market

Business cycle dependence

Reliance on Open Market Allocation

Low

Patrimonialist employment

cultures

High

Meritocratic employment

cultures


Source: Figure 2.1. Theoretical argument , pp. 24.10

School-to-work linkages, i.e., between HEi and firms)

The demands

of the graduate

labor market


Source: Figure 2.1. Theoretical argument , pp. 24.

• Job information is widely or narrowly distributed in different employment cultures.

• The effects of employment cultures get channeled through three mechanisms:

Reliance on different types of employment allocation

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• Low reliance: Patrimonialistic cultures

• High reliance: Meritocratic Cultures

EMPLOYMENT CULTURES

Meritocratic Employment Cultures

12

• Trust tend to be impersonal• Exchanges governed by the logic of

redistribution• High reliance on educational

institutions• Career paths begin at an early age

EMPLOYMENT CULTURES

13

• Trust depends on face-to-face personal relationships

• Exchanges governed by the logic of reciprocity

• Weak vocational training programs• Career paths begin at a later age.

Patrimonialistic Employment Cultures

HYPOTHESES

• Individuals tend to trust successful practices in their “milieu” when seeking a job; only if these strategies fail do individuals use alternative strategies.

(H1)

• Upwardly mobile graduates use weak ties more frequently than do middle class ones, mainly because their strong social contacts do not provide useful information for finding high-skilled jobs.

(H2)

• The use of social capital (strong or weak ties) instead of the market or employment agencies (impersonal ties) produces a poorer match between qualifications and jobs obtained.

(H3)

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CASE SELECTION CRITERIA

Source: Table 4.1. Employment cultures and national characteristics , pp. 72.

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CASE SELECTION CRITERIA

Source: Table 4.1. Employment cultures and national characteristics , pp. 72.

Labor market characteristics

School-to-work transition

Business cycle

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III. RESEARCH DESIGN AND DATA COLLECTION

• Comparative design: Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

• Quantitative/Multivariate analysis of 3 datasets:• Web survey (ES/NL)• DLHE Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (UK).• Eurobarometer #304 on employers’ perceptions of graduate

employability 17


PRE-FIELDING (Spanish and Dutch web survey)

Questionnaire design

Pre-test of questionionnare

Pretest of web-survey

softwareTranslation to Catalan and

English

Seeking for permission to undertake fieldwork

Contact with several offices and managers at each institution (e.g., Managment, Administration and Alumni

offices).

Set institutional agreements on:

Privacy and confidentialy

policies.Overall

schedule

Sample size and list of BA which would take part in

the study.

Text of the invitation letter to

university students

Set an schedule of reminders

Source: Figure 3.1. Pre-fielding: Steps in conducting the web survey, pp. 43.18


Source: Figure 3.7. Post-fielding: Steps in preparing the database, pp. 53.

POST-FIELDING (Spanish and Dutch web survey)

Non-response strategy

Monitor reminders

Answer queries of

respondents by email

Database preparation

Paradata collection

Track responses

by day

Metadata collection

Data Exporting

Codebook

Data-cleaning

Analysis

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1100 (out of 7979) 13,78%

734 (out of 5014) 14,63%

5460 (out of 7260) 75,20%


Source: Table 3.3. Questionnaires’ completion rate, pp. 51.

Questionnaires’ completion rate

20

Hypothesis 1/MILIEU

ES

NL

Hypothesis 2/UPWARDS VS MIDDLE-CLASS

GRADUATES

ES

NL

Hypothesis 3/EFFECTS OF SOCIAL

CONNECTIONS

ES

NL

UK


Datasets used for the analyses

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IV. FINDINGS

• University graduates mobilize different resources in seeking for jobs

• The negative impact of social connections

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Source: Table 5.1. Job-finding method, by Country, pp. 101.

Job-Finding methods (%)

23

Source: Table 5.1. Job-finding method, by Country, pp. 101.

Job-Finding methods (%)

24

Source: Tables 5.3, 5.4, 5.6, pp. 103-106 (selected data).

Job-seekers characteristics

The Netherlands Spain

FAST TRANSITION TO EMPLOYMENT

SLOW TRANSITION TO EMPLOYMENT 25

IV. FINDINGS

Parental characteristics (%)

Source: Table 5.7. Parental education, by Country, pp. 108 (selected data).

26

IV. FINDINGS

Parental characteristics (%)*

Source: Table 5.8. Parental occupation, by Country, pp. 109 (mothers, selected data).

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IV. FINDINGS

• Individuals tend to trust successful practices in their “milieu” when seeking a job; only if these strategies fail do individuals use alternative strategies.

(H1)

IV. FINDINGS

Hypotheses testing

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NL• Social Sciences

and Humanities• Transnational

skills

ES

…Individuals follow all kind of strategies.

Source: Table 5.14. Results of multiple linear regression analysis to determine the frequency of use of Successful and Alternative job-search strategies by university graduates, pp. 117.

29

NL• Direct application • Social networking• Foreign

languages

ES

…Odds of having a job by Time 2

Source: Table 5.15. Logistic regression on the odds of having a job, by Job Search Method and Country, pp. 119. 30

The odds of having a job by T2 in Spain are the same, regardless of the strategy used.

In the Netherlands, the odd of having a job are higher among those who relied on Direct application or social networks (1.856) than among those who used alternative methods (1.090).

IV. FINDINGS

• Upwardly mobile graduates use weak ties more frequently than do middle class ones, mainly because their strong social contacts do not provide useful information for finding high-skilled jobs.

(H2)

31

Upwards

Middle-class

graduates

…the experience of upwardly mobile graduates.

Source: Table 5.16. Use of different job-search strategies by upwardly mobile and middle class graduates (Regression), pp. 121. 32

Contrary to expectations, upwardly mobile graduates use weak ties less frequently than do middle class ones

IV. FINDINGS

• The use of social capital (strong or weak ties) instead of the market or employment agencies (impersonal ties) produces a poorer match between qualifications and jobs obtained.

(H3)

33

GRADUATES’ SIDE

• Job-mismatch• Temporary

employment• Low earnings

Social connections

…the effects of social connections.

Source: Tables 5.17 to 5.19. Logistic regression of having a job-mismatch/temporary contract/low earnings, pp. 123-124. 34

The odds of a job mismatch when using social networks (10,774) are much higher than when using other job-seeking strategies (1.418). The odds of having a temporary job are considerably higher (9.19) when the job was obtained through social connections than when obtained through other channels.

The odds of earning low incomes when relying on social connections (1,911) are higher than those when relying on other strategies (0,035).

EMPLOYERS’ DEMAND FOR SKILLS

35

Four dependent variables

Cognitive skills

Work-specific abilities

Non-Cognitive behavior

Interpersonal skills

36

Data from the Flash Eurobarometer #304 (2010)• 401 firms in Spain• 200 firms in the Netherlands• 400 firms in the United Kingdom

Source: Table 6.10. Set of Dependent Variables, pp. 145.

IV. FINDINGS

Cognitive skills•Business and Law, Engineers, and Humanities and Arts graduates

•Short-courses

Work-specific abilities•Firms in the Construction, Trade and Non-public services

Interpersonal skills•Work experience•Internships abroad

Non-Cognitive behavior•Anticipated growth in business

IV. FINDINGS

• What signals and skills employers focus on:

37

*«Country» accounts only for 2% of the variance.

Source: Table 6.11. Regression of Skills' requirements with Economic sector, graduates’ characteristics and conditions under which firms recruit new HE graduates, pp. 149-150.

V. CONTRIBUTIONS

•Shifting the focus from atomized to cultural approaches•Tracing the culture behind the job-search•University graduates mobilize different resources in

seeking for jobs•The negative impact of social connections•Employers want cognitive skills, not just diplomas

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VI. FIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

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VI. SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

Meritocratic cultures Patrimonialistic cultures

1.Adding new cases to the typology of employment cultures

University graduates vs. VET graduates.

Focus on how the public sector shapes the job-search.

Focus on the effects of severe economic conditions

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2. Targeting different groups within the same national context (e.g. Rivera, 2015, 2012)


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3. Tracing the hiring behavior and recruitment patterns across jobs and qualification levels (e.g. DeVaro 2005; DeVaro and Fields 2005)


42

4. Studying the effects of the business cycle on the job-search process.


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5. Studying «non-search» patterns (e.g., McDonald 2015; McDonald and Elder 2006).


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Thank you.

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THE RELATIVE SUCCESS OF JOB-SEEKING PRACTICES

Young university graduates in Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom

Selene Camargo CorreaPh.D. Dissertation

January 28, 2016Advisor: Prof. Marisol García

Dep. Teoria Sociològica i Metodologia de les Ciències Socials

46

Documents

Ph.D. Presentation at the University of Barcelona (January 28, 2016)