Life Course Variation across Time and Space: Complexity in Employment Careers in Europe 1924 - 2009

• In Event: 375 - Regular Session. Labor Market

Abstract

That employment careers have become increasing complex and unstable over the second half of the 20th century is a widespread perception of advanced societies. Yet, recent empirical evidence for single countries suggests that the complexity in employment careers increased much less than commonly presumed. To put change in the complexity of employment careers across historical periods into perspective we compare it to the variation of complexity in employment careers across countries. We propose a new methodological approach including measures developed in sequence analysis to summarize life course complexity in a cross-classified multilevel model by cohort and country. Specifically, we use the SHARELIFE data to analyze life-time employment careers from ages 10 to 65 for men and women in 14 European countries between 1924 and 2009. Findings show substantially more variation in the complexity of life-time employment careers across countries than across cohorts. In fact, compared with the variation of complexity in employment careers across countries, change across historical periods within the 20th century is negligible. We conclude that contrary to common conjectures there has been no notable increase in the complexity of employment careers in the second half of the 20th century in our comparison countries. Instead, our results highlight stable cross-country differences over time, which emphasize path-dependency in national institutions and in the employment trajectories that unfold within these macro-structural settings.

Authors

• Zachary James Van Winkle, Humboldt University-Berlin

• Anette Eva Fasang, Humboldt University-Berlin