Occupational Change in Europe: How Technology and Education Transform the Job Structure

What types of jobs are growing: well-paid managerial jobs or low-paid auxiliary jobs, high-end professional jobs or bottom-end service jobs? Can occupational change transform affluent countries into enlarged middle-class societies? Or, on the contrary, are we heading towards a future of
increasingly divided class societies? Do changes in the employment structure allow forthcoming generations to move towards more rewarding jobs than those held by their parents - or is downward mobility the more likely outcome?

This book throws new light on these timely questions by drawing on extensive evidence of employment data on the pattern of occupational change in Britain, Denmark, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland since 1990. It documents the change in the employment structure, and examines the five underlying
driving forces: technology, globalization, education, migration, and institutions. The book discusses whether governments really have no other choice than either occupational upgrading with soaring unemployment or full employment with expanding low-end jobs. The book gives a clear picture of the
future of work, skills, and employment in today's Europe, contributing to the debate in economic sociology and labour economics.


Author: Daniel Oesch
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 11/12/2013
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.60w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780199680962

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2014

About the Author

Daniel Oesch, Professor at the Life Course and Inequality Research Centre, University of Lausanne

Daniel Oesch is a professor at the Life Course and Inequality Research Centre (LINES) at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He lectures on labour market policy, social stratification, and industrial relations. He studied at the Universities of Geneva, Lisbon, and Florence, and earned his PhD from the University of Zurich. Alongside his academic work, Oesch had served for six years as national secretary of the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions in Berne. He is the author of Redrawing the Class Map (2006, Palgrave Macmillan).

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