Labour Market Dynamics and Employment Transitions
Summary
The study of labour market dynamics and employment transitions examines how workers move between different states of employment, including permanent positions, temporary contracts, unemployment and inactivity. This field has grown in importance as economies contend with the rise of atypical work, demographic shifts and rapid technological change. Researchers now explore not only individual trajectories but also aggregate patterns, assessing how transitions affect wage growth, productivity and social welfare. Labour market dualization, characterised by sharp divides between secure and insecure jobs, has been linked to slowing wage growth and widening inequality. At the same time, temporary and fixed‐term contracts play a dual role as both stepping stones into stable work and sources of material deprivation. Advances in longitudinal and administrative data, coupled with novel sequence‐analysis and multi‐state duration models, have deepened understanding of how personal characteristics, firm practices and policy settings shape career paths. Globally, insights into these transitions inform active labour market policies, employment protection reform and social safety nets, with the aim of fostering inclusive and resilient labour markets.
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Labour Market Dynamics and Employment Transitions publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in labour market dynamics and employment transitions across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Labour market dualization: The division of the workforce into secure, well-protected jobs and insecure, flexible ones, often leading to inequality and segmented career paths.
Employment transition: A change in a worker’s labour market status, such as moving from unemployment to a permanent job or from a temporary contract to inactivity.
Temporary employment: Work arrangements governed by fixed-term or contingent contracts that lack the long-term security and benefits of permanent positions.
Conversion rate: The proportion of fixed-term or temporary contracts that are renewed or transformed into permanent employment within a given period.
References
- Beggaring Thy Co-Worker: Labor Market Dualization and the Wage Growth Slowdown in Europe. ILR Review (2024).
- Do temporary employees experience increased material deprivation? Evidence from German panel data. Journal of European Social Policy (2024).
- Fixed-term contracts and firm productivity: Do workers’ skills and firm conversion rates from fixed-term to permanent contracts matter?. International Journal of Manpower (2024).
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