Education and labour force

Several studies have documented unprecedented growth in the work force in India mainly attributable to demographic transition. However, with the growth in the working age population, concerns regarding their quality also arise. The types of works engaging the labours and their quality characteristics are often left behind; but the internal profile of the workers matters as a critical dimension of inclusive development. Most of the aspects of decent employment are evidentially related to education which is a thread that gives form to the fabric of society. In India, a growing body of economic evidence suggests social progress as a key component for achieving sustainable economic development. Using data from 66th round (Schedule 10.0) of national Sample Survey, this paper investigates current state of education level among Indian labours, difference between the contribution of general and technical education in work and earnings. Six main categories of work status are identified in the whole population and the education attainment variable combines both general and technical education. Analysis reveals that Indian labour force is mainly absorbed in self employment and casual labours. Salaried employment is prominent only among urban males. The role of general and technical education is clearly different, especially among females.

Assessment of social disparity by various grades of employment provides comparative insight into the impact of affirmative policies in India. Affirmative policies in India have been implemented for almost six decades, which are expected to bring the historically backward groups representation in employment in par with the forward caste group. In this paper, we use the simple arithmetic and geometric ratios and further theil index of disparity to measure between and within group disparities among the social groups in terms of representation in various grades of employment. Further, analysis is done to measure the population inertia in terms of growth of population in employment by social groups using Stable Equivalent Ratio. Results reveal existing disparities between the social groups in terms of participation in employment further increased with the inclusion of population with higher education. Consistently, the gap between the forward caste and backward caste further widened in participation in employment . Analysis by gender also reveals between male and female disparities are significant within social group in employment. Results reveal that backward caste group of India still lag far behind compared to forward caste group in terms of representation at higher grades of employment.

Nigeria youths over the years have been shortchanged in all aspects of life and education sector is not left out. Several efforts aimed at addressing this issue have neglected the students’ perspective. This study interrogated the living conditions of students in selected tertiary institutions in southwest Nigeria. The study employed quantitative (nine hundred and sixty-two questionnaires) and qualitative (observation, in depth interviews, and Key informants (KII) methods in collecting the data for the study. Findings revealed that the living conditions were deplorable and students were not satisfied with it. Further, they were not satisfied with the attitude of the management towards their living conditions. On test of hypotheses, findings revealed that there was a relationship between age, year of study and satisfaction with living condition (0.02). There is need to address the living condition of these youths in order improve tertiary education and the lives of these young ones

While there is an increasing literature on the determinants of learning, the extent to which young people retain acquired skills upon school-leaving remains largely unknown. Using unique longitudinal data from a sample of Malawian adolescents who were attending school when first interviewed in 2007 and were re-interviewed yearly until 2011, this paper investigate gender differences in the retention of basic literacy and numeracy. Preliminary results show that while a significantly higher proportion of females than of males were able to read two sentences in Chichewa and in English at baseline, for numeracy there were no gender differences. Examining the trends in literacy and numeracy over time, although females performed significantly better than males in both languages at baseline, this difference disappeared and males significantly outperformed females in the most recent rounds. Males and females performed equally in the numeracy assessment at baseline, but by 2011 males’ also surpassed females. Preliminary results from life events analysis suggest that earlier school leaving by females and higher grade attainment by males partially explain these trends, but a gender effect remains in the retention of English literacy even after controlling for these variables.

Brazil and South Africa are among the most socio-economically unequal countries in the world; education is often cited as the main vehicle for alleviating or exacerbating such pervasive inequality. Equally important, Brazil and South Africa are among the largest multiracial societies in the world, with striking disadvantages in social and economic opportunities and outcomes among the non-white population. The first goal of this paper is to examine cohort patterns of educational inequality by race in Brazil and South Africa. Both countries now witness the largest ever cohorts incorporated into the educational system; yet, despite overwhelming improvements in educational opportunity, it remains unclear whether race inequalities in earnings have declined for younger cohorts. The second goal of this paper is therefore to examine cohort changes in racial differences in earnings in Brazil and South Africa. We use data from large nationally representative household surveys (PNAD for Brazil; GHS for South Africa). To address high unemployment rates, particularly among black South Africans, and account for different propensities of reporting positive earnings, we utilize propensity score matching. Our preliminary findings suggest that white-black inequalities in earnings have persisted despite recent gains in education.

This study examines several potential mechanisms underlying the recent emergence of positive relationship between educational attainment and married women’s labor force attachment in Japan. I use data from a longitudinal survey collected in the 1990s and early 2000s, a period of substantial change in the context of women’s work, to estimate discrete-time competing risk models for married women’s labor force transitions including labor force exit, transitions between standard and non-standard employment, and reentry to the labor market. Study results indicate that recently emerging educational differentials in married women’s labor force participation in Japan are mainly due to the fact that highly educated women are more likely to stay in the labor market (including standard and non-standard employment), not because they are more likely to return to the labor force. Study findings also show that it is those with the lowest educational attainment who are more likely to reenter the labor force usually in non-standard jobs with few benefits and little room for advancement. In addition, women’s own income, work orientation, and job characteristics such as occupation, firm size, and public sector employment play important roles in mediating relationships between education and labor force transitions.

This paper investigates the relative importance of family background characteristics and labor market signals for educational investment decisions, and how do they differ across genders. One thrust of the literature on gender differences in wages and earnings focuses on determining how much of the difference is based on observables such as education, industry, as well as occupations. These observed outcomes, however, are not fundamentally exogenous since they reflect decisions made by families and individuals at important junctures in their youth. Exploiting the longitudinal feature of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) and annual rounds of the nationally representative labor survey (the SAKERNAS), this paper examines the relative contribution of family background and local labor market conditions on the trajectory that individuals take from secondary and tertiary education, and into the labor market.

Georgia belongs to the countries of the Post-Soviet area, which has been the first country to conduct the reforms in the educational field and acquire the European educational system. On the basis of the reforms the main directions of both school and higher education have greatly changed. Georgian educational space has significantly approached the European one, though different problems still exist and their study will help us in finding the ways to solve them. Among such problems one of the most important problems is the education and employment issue, that was common for Soviet Georgia. In the Post-Soviet period, political and economic crises existing in Georgia caused the devaluation of the labour market.
In the paper there will be discussed the issues of education and employment in contemporary Georgia. The paper will be based on researches conducted in education and employment field, on statistical data, on the reports and researches of foreign and Georgian experts.

Education is a main part of human capital investment so as to boost economic growth, which was proved by many empirical studies in East Asia. In 1998, China was going to follow this path and its college intake increased rapidly. But more and more youth college graduates faced unemployment or had to work in informal sectors. Does college expansion lead more youth unemployment? The author uses a dynamic Computable General Equilibrium model to study this issue. In the model, labor is classified into three education levels and six occupation types; and different type of person has different sack rate, job entry limitation and willingness to change his occupation. The simulation is designed as, assumed college expansion had not happened, to see what the difference were. It is certain that China would go into another growth path with a different college composition of labor force and a different youth unemployment rate. The result may shed light on the relation between college expansion and youth unemployment.

This paper makes a new interpretation of “migrant worker shortage” in China from a unique perspective of demographic swings. The demographic swings have caused dramatic structural changes of working-age population: on the one hand, working-age population is keeping ageing gradually and the proportion of the younger workers is declining, while the employers insist employing migrant workers that are both young and vigorous. On the other hand, the number of workers newly entering into the labor market is declining every year, which undermines the company’s paths for annual turnover of workers. What is more, the higher education creates the first profession division, the expansion of which results in the decline proportion of manual workers in the young workers that has already been shrinking. Therefore, the shortage of migrant workers is not a sign of the Lewis turning point which is described as the decreasing migration flows from rural areas to urban due to the vanishing of the surplus labor force in rural areas, but an issue associated with the overall reduction in size of young manual-worker population caused by demographic swings and the enlarging enrollment of university. It’s a vivid representation of Easterlin’s point of view: the fluctuation of population exerts a great influence on the economic and social development.