Falling at the bottom: Unskilled jobs at entry in the labor market in Spain over time and in a comparative perspective

Abstract

This article analyses the risk of occupying an unskilled job for young people in Spain over the last 30 years. In order to study change over time, all of the quarters of the Spanish Labor Force Survey have been used, from the third quarter of 1976 to the third quarter of 2007. The results show that the likelihood of having an unskilled job has decreased slightly. The logit regressions highlight: 1) the continuing importance of education in helping avoidance of the worst jobs; 2) greater equality of the sexes; and 3) nationality as a new and significant structuring factor of inequality. We have complemented the in-depth analysis for Spain with a comparative analysis for 24 countries using data from the European Labor Force Survey of 2005. Our findings demonstrate that there are more unskilled jobs in Spain in comparison with the other 23 countries.