Occupational Labor Mobility

What is ‘Occupational Labor Mobility’

Refers to the ease with which workers can switch career fields to find gainful employment or meet labor needs. Higher levels of occupational labor mobility help to maintain strong employment and productivity levels, leading many governments to provide occupational retraining to help workers acquire necessary skills and expedite the process.

Explaining ‘Occupational Labor Mobility’

A lack of occupational labor mobility is often referred to as “golden handcuffs,” meaning that higher paid workers with only one unique skill-set cannot quickly change career fields without a major financial adjustment. The ongoing struggles of the U.S. autoworker have provided a painful example of this, with many downsized workers not being able to find employment with compensation anywhere close to their previous levels.

Further Reading

  • Production in the finance literature, institutional reputation, and labor mobility in academia: A global perspective – www.jstor.org [PDF]
  • Sectoral Segmentation of Labor Markets and the Labor Mobility [J] – en.cnki.com.cn [PDF]
  • Labor Mobility, Resource Allocation, and Structural Unemployment – www.jstor.org [PDF]
  • Labor mobility: Implications for asset pricing – onlinelibrary.wiley.com [PDF]
  • Training systems and labor mobility: A comparison between Germany and Sweden – onlinelibrary.wiley.com [PDF]
  • Specificity of occupational training and occupational mobility: an empirical study based on Lazear's skill-weights approach – www.tandfonline.com [PDF]
  • Testing the dual labor market hypothesis evidence from the israel labor mobility survey – www.jstor.org [PDF]
  • How much has house lock affected labor mobility and the unemployment rate? – www.questia.com [PDF]
  • Occupational mobility of ethnic migrants – www.econstor.eu [PDF]
  • Economic Systems, Social Networks and Occupational Mobility – en.cnki.com.cn [PDF]