Employer Demand for Types of Computer Skills 1991-2017: Which ones do pay off?

• In Event: 3544 - Labor Market

Abstract

This study examines whether employer demand for particular types of computer skills necessary for job performance is associated with temporary, stable, increasing or decreasing wage premiums over the thirty year period from 1991 to 2017. It attempts to overcome several shortcomings in previous research, most notably, by proposing a sophisticated conceptualization and extraction of types of ICT skills, by circumventing the omit¬ted-variable bias, and by measuring employer demand for these skills directly, repeatedly (i.e., annually), and in a long-term perspective. Theoretically, the study suggests that the major mechanism by which to reap a payoff to skills is the raising demand for the respective skills that can only be insufficiently met by supply. Herewith, the major argument is that the response from the supply side to the rising skill demand varies by type of computer skills and the degree of expertise requested. Hence, different patterns of wage premiums are expected. Analyses of trends in the payoff to types of ICT skills are based on job ads data taken from the Swiss Job Market Monitor (SJMM), a longitudinal dataset from 1950 onwards of annual representative samples of job vacancies advertised in the press and online that are matched to wage data taken from the Swiss Labor Force Survey (SLFS). Results confirm the stark differences in the magnitude and the pattern of the payoff to various types of computer skills.

Authors

• Marlis C. Buchmann, University of Zurich

• Helen Buchs, University of Zurich, Department of Sociology

• Ann-Sophie Gnehm, University of Zurich, Department of Sociology