Moving Down: Women`s Part-time Work and Occupational Change in Britain 1991-2001

Mary Gregory (mary.gregory@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk) and Sara Connolly

No 359, Economics Series Working Papers from University of Oxford, Department of Economics

Abstract: The UK`s Equal Opportunities Commission has recently drawn attention to the `hidden brain drain` when women working part-time are employed in occupations below those for which they are qualified. These inferences were based on self-reporting. We give an objective and quantitative analysis of the nature of occupational change as women make the transition between full-time and part-time work. We construct an occupational classification which supports a ranking of occupations based on the average level of qualification of those employed there on a full-time basis. Using the NESPD and the BHPS for the period 1991-2001 we show that perhaps one-quarter of women moving from full- to part-time work move to an occupation at a lower level of qualification. Over 20 percent of professional women downgrade, half of them moving to low-skill jobs; two-thirds of nurses leaving nursing become care assistants; women from managerial positions are particularly badly affected. Women remaining with their current employer are much less vulnerable to downgrading, and the availability of part-time opportunities within the occupation is far more important than the presence of a pre-school child in determining whether a woman moves to a lower-level occupation. These findings indicate a loss of economic efficiency through the underutilisation of the skills of many of the women who work part-time.

Keywords: Female Employment; Part-time Work; Occupation; Life-cycle; Downgrade; Over-qualification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 C25 C33 C35 J16 J22 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-10-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Moving Down: Women's Part-Time Work and Occupational Change in Britain 1991-2001 (2008)
Journal Article: Moving Down: Women's Part‐Time Work and Occupational Change in Britain 1991–2001 (2008)
Working Paper: Moving Down: Women’s Part-time Work and Occupational Change in Britain 1991–2001 (2007)
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