The impact of local job polarisation on the occupational mobility of low-paid workers

Sanne Velthuis, University of Manchester and Paul Sissons, University of Coventry

(Project no. 1008228)

The research will explore the impact of job polarisation at the local labour market level on occupational mobility from low-paid, low-skilled occupations to higher-paid, higher-skilled occupations. Several studies have analysed how the UK labour market has changed in recent decades due to the relative decline of employment in routine occupations around the middle of the wage distribution, caused to a large extent by technological advancement in the workplace. This process seems to have affected some areas of the UK more strongly than others, and as a result there are local variations in the extent to which employment is polarised into low- and high-skilled jobs at the expense of middle-skilled jobs. Several authors have suggested that the 'hollowing out' of the labour market due to the decrease in intermediate, routine jobs may have impacted on the ability of low-paid workers to advance up the occupational ladder. But thus far no attempt has been made to address this question empirically. This study will endeavour to do so by documenting variations in the degree of polarisation at the local level, and analysing the effect of these variations on transitions from low-paid occupations to higher-paid occupations.