The Routine Content Of Occupations: New Cross-Country Measures Based On PIAAC

Luca Marcolin, Sébastien Miroudot and Mariagrazia Squicciarini
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Luca Marcolin: OECD

No 188, OECD Trade Policy Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: This work proposes a novel measure of the routine content of occupations, called the Routine Intensity Indicator (RII), built on data from the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) survey. The RII uses information about the extent to which workers can modify the sequence of their tasks and decide the type of tasks to be performed on the job. Based on median RII values of individuals in 3-digit occupations across 20 OECD countries, jobs are grouped into quartiles of routine-intensity. On average, in 2012, 46% of employed persons worked in non-routine (18%) or low (28%) routine intensive occupations, with the distribution differing significantly across countries. The relationship between the routine content of occupations and the skills of the workforce is also investigated. While a negative correlation does emerge between skill content and routine intensity – i.e. more routine-intensive occupations tend to be associated with lower skills – this relationship is not necessarily very strong.

Keywords: occupations; routine task; Skill (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-04-26
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pke
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:traaab:188-en

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