Job Quality, Innovation and Employment – a Structural Equation Modeling on Regional Level

Abstract

Job quality (JQ) covers the aspects that contribute to wellbeing through the impact on material living conditions or quality of life at work. The research aims to evaluate the relationship between the quality of jobs, in combination with the dimensions of innovation and other economic and social indicators, on the performance of the labor market. The analysis is carried out at the level of 193 NUTS 1, 2 and 3 territorial administrative regions. Job quality is estimated based on the results of Eurofound’s sixth Working Conditions Survey 2015 (EWCS), which outlines some defining features of job quality. In the relationship between JQ and the growth of employment, we also introduced influences of innovation activities concerning the human resources involved, the financial support for research or the creation of collaborative networks between innovators, as well as intellectual assets in the form of patents applications, trademarks or design. The results of our structural equations modeling reveal an intense and positive causal relationship between the intellectual output (intellectual assets) and specific attributes of the job quality, especially regarding job prospects, skills and discretion, and the increase in the rate of employment.