The aim of this study is to explore the perceptions that job recruitment organisations in Gävlehave about unemployed international social work graduates in Sweden and to explain the factorsthat affect unemployed international social work graduates’ integration into the labour market inSweden. To achieve this aim, a qualitative research design was used. In-depth interviews wereconducted with two professionals from two different job recruitment organisations in Gävle. Theinterviews were transcribed and analysed through thematic analysis. The results suggest that forthe first research question that explored the perceptions that job recruitment professionals inGävle have about unemployed international social work graduates in Sweden, five sub-themesemerged: “Expanded opportunities for integration”, “innovation and globalization”, “Equitable,transparent, and non-discriminatory policies”, “permanence and non-permanence”, and“financial power”. Meanwhile, the results indicate that for the second research question whichsought to explain the factors that affect unemployed international social work graduates’integration into the labour market in Sweden, five sub-themes emerged: “language”, “theory vs.practice debate”, “experience”, “networking and social contacts”, and “belonging”. Werecommend that international social work graduates make use of these results so that they canincrease their chances of access to jobs and integration into the labour market in Sweden.

African immigrants in Sweden are often problematized in political and media debates, especially in relation to the lack of integration into the Swedish labour market. The study is based on primary and secondary data analysis of the challenges Ugandan immigrants experience during the process of navigating themselves in the Swedish labour market. The aim of this study is to examine the challenges experienced by Ugandan immigrants in and within the Swedish labour market.My empirical material was based on the primary data gathered from interviews (semi-structured interviews), which are real-life experiences from immigrants and secondary data from the literature review that formed the study's theoretical background. The theories used during research are human capital, social capital, and integration. During the study, findings revealed that discrimination, the lack of social network, lack of human capital poor knowledge of the Swedish language, and non-recognition of foreign academic qualifications and skills were the major barriers experienced by Ugandan immigrants from entering the Swedish labour market. However, the Swedish government has been able to acknowledge some of those challenges and considered plans have been put in place to tackle these challenges.

This thesis studies the impacts of school entry policy and information revelation on student outcomes using a sample of students from the province of British Columbia (BC), Canada. The questions examined by the first two essays arise from a policy used by many industrialized countries, whereby students born within a 1-year time span all begin school at the same time. This policy creates large differences in age among students in the same class, which are thought to affect their academic performance along a number of dimensions. In the first essay, I contribute to the literature by establishing the persistence in test score differentials among students in the same class who differ in age. I show that in grade 4 older students outperform younger students by a large margin in numeracy, reading and writing, an effect that persists to a lesser magnitude until grade 10. The persistence is strongest for the writing skill, and it is also much stronger for girls than for boys. The strength of the test score differential in grade 10 suggests that the effects of age could have more lasting effects on cognitive and labour market outcomes. In the second essay, I take a closer look at how age affects outcomes, by disentangling the entry age effect from the test age effect. Nearly all studies in this literature interpret age-related differences in student outcomes as the result of entry age, but because students who enter later are also older at every stage in compulsory schooling, the entry age effect has not been separated from the test age effect. Using a set of students entering school at the time of BC's dual entry experiment, I show that test age is largely responsible for age-related differences in the probability of repeating grade 3, and entry age is largely responsible for age-related differences in grade 10 numeracy and reading scores. I show further that having an extra year of schooling reduces the likelihood that a student repeats grade 3, but has a negligible impact on grade 10 test scores. Both the entry age and test age effects are stronger for boys than they are for girls. The final essay examines whether school choices change when parents are exposed to a new source of information on school quality. I model the effect of new information on choices using a simple expected utility framework and show that parents will use the new information to make different choices if they do not perceive it to be too noisy and if they have poor prior information on school quality. Furthermore, they make increasing use of the new information as more observations become available, since it becomes a more accurate predictor of true quality. Using the sudden release of BC's new standardized testing regime, I then study whether there is empirical support for the model. I show that the likelihood of switching out of a school increases when a school performs worse on the test, and that enrollment into kindergarten responds positively to increases in test scores. The response becomes stronger when more test score observations are available. Finally, I show variance in the response among parents living in less-educated neighbourhoods and among those who do not speak English at home, suggesting that prior information does play a role in the information use. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p> This dissertation is concerned with the problems of constructing testable models of the short-run dynamics of urban labour markets, given the currently available data sources. Bimonthly data for manufacturing production workers in U.S. cities were considered the most complete for the purpose. Twenty-nine cities were chosen (Indiana, 1 city; Michigan, 1 city; New York State, 7 cities; Ohio, 8 cities; Pennsylvania, 12 cities). The period of the study, 1964-73, was chosen to avoid changes in data-base definition and to avoid the impact of the oil embargo of late 1973. </p> <p> Two types of model were estimated for each city, with different specifications for each model. The first model consisted of three linear, simultaneous difference equations determining, for each city, the number of hours worked per period (number of employees x number of hours worked per employee), the supply of hours available per period and the average weekly wage rate. When tested empirically this model was successful in explaining all these variables. The second model consisted of five equations, determining the number of people employed per period, the number of hours worked per employee per period, the size of the labour force, the hourly wage rate and the voluntary quit rate from employment. This model was considered the theoretically superior of the two in that it allowed for employers substituting between the number of their employees and the number of hours worked by each employee per period. This model also proved the more empirically successful of the two models. The models were tested using the Two-Stage Least-Squares estimation technique. It is believed that this is the first time that such models have been tested in order to analyse short-run urban labour market behaviour. </p> <p> It was hypothesised that the level of manufacturing production is a major determinant of labour market activity in each city. Unfortunately no short-run urban manufacturing production data are available either for the U.S.A. or elsewhere. This fundamental deficiency in the data base was overcome by the development of a synthetic urban manufacturing production time-series, using national U.S.A. production time-series weighted by the proportions of each of nine manufacturing categories in each city. The technique cannot be validated directly but the results from the models are consistent with the synthetic series being excellent proxies for the true series. </p> <p> The results indicated that the cities all had labour markets that behaved in remarkably similar ways, despite the fact that the labour forces involved ranged in size from 57,000 to 5,558,400 people. In particular the labour markets all exhibited highly stable dynamic behaviour. This result indicated that the labour markets were unlikely to be the generators of boom or slump in their respective cities. When estimated labour market parameters were mapped there appeared to be only weak spatial groupings of the parameter values. Similarly weak groupings appeared when the parameter values were plotted against labour force size. No firm conclusions could be drawn from the groupings. Originally it was intended to model the inter-urban labour market interactions but this proved impossible. All the results are based, therefore, on the assumption that those inter-urban interactions are weak enough to be ignored in the short-run. </p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

TITLE: Work, Health and the Economy: Examining Predictors of Early Retirement Among Older Canadian Workers OBJECTIVES: To investigate the contribution of socio-demographic, health, work, and health behaviour factors to the transition from work to early non-disability retirement among older Canadian workers during a period of economic recession compared to a period of non-recession. METHODS: A systematic scoping review was conducted to identify the predictors of early retirement reported in the published literature. This study also used data from Statistics Canada’s National Population Health Survey to explore the predictors of early retirement among two prospective cohorts of older Canadian workers aged 45-64 that spanned a non-recessionary economic period in Canada (cohort 1: 1994-1999) and a period which included an economic recession (cohort 2: 2006-2010). The impact of various factors on early retirement was examined using logistic regression analyses. RESULTS: Findings from the systematic scoping review were used to construct a list of variables to explore as predictors in the model. Factors which were associated with higher transitions into early retirement included older age (cohort 1: OR=1.42; cohort 2: OR=1.31), living in Quebec (cohort 1: OR=2.26), occasional (cohort 1: OR=2.56) or regular drinking (cohort 1: OR=2.32), low job satisfaction (cohort 1: OR=3.42; cohort 2: OR=3.33), working part-time (cohort 1: OR=2.16; cohort 2: OR=2.26), and employment in public administration (cohort 1: OR=2.77). While being a woman (cohort 1: OR=0.59), immigrant (cohort 1: OR=0.57), and higher job security (cohort 1: OR=0.73) were associated with lower exits to early retirement. There were differences observed in the effects of occasional and regular drinking, and for living in Quebec, on early retirement between the two contrasting economic time periods. The comparison of the provincial effect suggested that early retirement varies to some extent with the provincial unemployment rate. CONCLUSIONS: Predictors of early retirement among older Canadian workers are multifactorial. Results suggest that factors beyond individual determinants may influence early retirement and future research is needed to better understand what aspects of the provincial context are driving retirement decisions. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第24825号 / 経博第672号 / 新制||経||304(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 矢野, 剛, 教授 西山, 慶彦, 教授 諸富, 徹 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DFAM

The purpose of this study is to examine how different risk factors on the labour market affect an individuals’ perceived unemployment risk and how this perceived risk is affected depending on what country you work in. By comparing countries, a difference can be made on, depending on the countries labour policies and the state of their welfare, how they are affecting your perceived unemployment risk. The countries used in this study are Sweden, Denmark and Poland and the risk factors used are, gender, education level, competence and trade unions. The data for this study is taken from ISSPs surveys and the analysis method used is a bivariate and a multiple regression analysis. The result from the study show that there are differences between the countries perceived unemployment risk and how the risk factors affect this. But, because a lot of the results are non-significant, a general conclusion can’t be done because there is no certainty that the results exist outside of this study. But one thing is certain, that this is a much more complex field were general conclusions are hard to make and that the risk factors needs more and thorough studying and how the individuals perceived unemployment risk affects their mental health.

Studies and reports have shown that a significant portion of young individuals with intellectual disabilities who complete their studies at special needs upper-secondary school find themselves outside the labor market. Among these, a considerable number are described as being somewhere else, i.e., not in employment, education, or daily activities. This is despite Sweden, through the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Ds 2008:23), acknowledging their right to work on equal terms as others. The aim of this essay is to highlight the underlying reasons why young individuals with intellectual disabilities are excluded from the labor market and the reasons they find themselves in NEED (Not in Employment, Education, or Daily Activity). In a non-systematic literature review, twelve scientific articles found through PsycInfo and Libsearch were examined to address the challenges and opportunities that young individuals with intellectual disabilities face in relation to employment and work. The results were then analyzed based on theories of stigma, social justice, and developmental ecology. The findings primarily point to three reasons why young individuals with intellectual disabilities are excluded from labor markets and are in NEED: 1. stigmatization of the group, 2. structural barriers such as a complex welfare system and limited educational opportunities, and 3. difficulties in participating in today's work structure due to limited adaptive abilities.

This study focuses on economic integration of foreign-born men and women from Somalia and the former Yugoslavia in Sweden and in the Netherlands. Many welfare states of Western Europe are experiencing that some groups of immigrants have had a hard time to integrating economically. This has been dictated by high unemployment rates and low incomes. The aim of this thesis is therefore to describe the migration and the economic integration for the chosen groups and countries and to analyse factors that can have an effect on the immigrants’ labour market situation. Thesis also investigates institutional factors that can contribute to either positive or negative immigrant economic integration. For the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding of the subject a comparative method is used, which is characterised by both descriptive and explanatory analysis on immigrant economic integration. The analysis is based on literature, earlier studies and statistical data. The theories used for explaining labour market integration are human capital theory, social capital theory as well as the destination countries institutional factors, specifically the immigration and integration policies. It was found that the Yugoslavian immigrant groups had a positive labour market attachment when compared to the Somali immigrant groups. The Dutch former Yugoslavs have the best labour market success. Out of the examined Somalis; the Swedish Somalis had the best labour market success while the Dutch Somalis have shown the poorest labour market attachment. It was also found that, especially, the relation between the degrees of education has an effect on the immigrants’ economic integration. Furthermore, year of migration and age have also shown to have an effect on the investigated immigrants’ economic integration. The examined institutional factors, on the other hand, were not believed to have any direct impact on the immigrants’ labour market success.

Massive recruitment of foreign labour occurred in all Gulf States since the beginning of oil exploitation in 1973. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) the foreign population accounted for up to 75 per cent of the total population and up to 90 per cent of the labour force in 2000. Even though the migration system is of temporary character, many foreign workers spend dozens of years in the country.This study aims to reveal two fundamental issues. On one hand, it will be shown why a sample of migrant workers came to the United Arab Emirates. Contemporary theories on international migration will be presented to analyze the results of the field study undertaken during four weeks in the emirate of Dubai. On the other hand, living and working conditions for those migrant workers in the UAE are presented. Formal regulations and international conventions are compared to the actual practices in the UAE. Special focus will be given to formal regulations and widespread informal practices that easily generate irregularity.