Occupational mobility in Argentina. Are there important differences by gender?

BECCARIA, LUIS; MAURIZIO, ROXANA

Washington D.C.

Conferencia; 2005 International Association for Feminist Economics Conference (IAFFE); 2005

This document analyzes the characteristics of labor mobility in Argentina during the nineties by studying transitions from occupations. The paper also explores to what extent rising unemployment and those changes underwent by the occupational structure, as well as the new labor regulations, influenced labor mobility patterns during that period focusing on differences between men and women. Consequently, changes in exit rates from jobs between the first part of the decade and the second one are studied. Precisely, major changes in labor institutions were introduced in 1995 and after, and open unemployment peaked during the latter part of the nineties. The evidence analyzed in this paper upholds that occupational instability rose between the iirst and second part of the last decade of the 20th century. Such development had different impacts on distinct population groups. In particular, occupational turnover growth during the second part of the nineties was remarkable for men, while women maintained their exit rate from occupations. This last result was affected by the continuation of the long-term trend towards a higher and more stable female participation in the labor force. During these years, women increased their participation rate and prolonged their permanency within the economically active population, by engaging in an active search and/or remaining unemployed after leaving a job. Such tendency would have been partially offset by an overall growth of labor instability. Therefore, if the effects of that trend could have been discounted, a process of elevation of occupational instability would have also emerged among women.