OCCUPATIONAL TRANSITIONS IN THE METROPOLITAN LABOR MARKET - AN - PDF document

OCCUPATIONAL TRANSITIONS IN THE METROPOLITAN LABOR MARKET - AN ANALYSIS BY COLOR AND GENDER IN THE YEARS 2000 1 Sandro Eduardo Monsueto – Universidade Federal de Goiás Mariangela Furlan Antigo – Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Daniela Goes Paraiso Lacerda – Fundação João Pinheiro Jaqueline Moraes Assis Gouveia - Universidade Estatual de Campinas Abstract This article intends to study occupational transitions with different levels of qualification, by gender and color, in the period between 2002 and 2016. From the data of the Monthly Employment Survey applied to six metropolitan regions of the country, the results show that whites individuals stand out for their greater distribution of time in occupations with high qualification. Assigning the probability pattern of occupational transition from whites to nonwhites shows that the fraction of time in which the latter pass in the best occupations increases, while the time spent in the two categories of occupations of lower socioeconomic quality is reduced. In addition, the multinomial logit models show a significant temporal dependence of the contemporary occupational situation of the workers, evidencing difficulties to carry out transitions between the segments of socioeconomic quality considered. This result is more expressive to non-white workers. Keywords: transition; occupation class; gender; color. Introduction The successful stabilization plan implemented during the 1990s, the valuation of the minimum wage, the creation of income transfer policies, the generation of employment and the greater formalization of the labor force are some examples of policies that have improved the distribution and conditions of the labor market in Brazil in the first decade of the 21 st century, with a trend of reversion in the current period. Given these results, 1 This study had financial support of Fapemig (Edital 01/2014 – Demanda Universal, Process APQ-02764- 14 and Edital 02/2016 - Programa Pesquisador Mineiro - PPM X, Process PPM-00658-16 ). 1

questions arise regarding the dynamics of the Brazilian labor market, especially in the view of the recent rise in unemployment and informality rates. In this sense, this article aims to study the Brazilian labor market from both a general point of view and considering the role of sex and color. Among the main objectives of the study, we highlight the search for the variables that explain the probabilities of success of the individuals in the search for occupation, the identification of personal attributes that affect these probabilities and the investigation of which groups (white men, non- white men, white women and non-white women) are more benefited from the behavior of the labor market in Brazil in the first decade of the twenty-first century and in the most recent period. It is also considered the quality of the work place occupied by each for each demographic group analyzed. Theoretical foundation Several studies have highlighted the role of the labor market and the occupational structure both to reflect the social inequalities in the country (Barros and Mendonça, 1995 and Ramos and Vieira, 2001), as well as to generate additional inequalities, given the presence of segmentation and discrimination of gender and race (Oliveira and Ribeiro, 1998; Oliveira, 1998 and 2003; Soares and Oliveira, 2004; Araújo and Ribeiro, 2001; Matos and Machado, 2006). However, the Brazilian labor market can also act as a source of exit for situations of very low income or poverty (Barros et al , 1997). That is, the insertion in the labor market is an instrument by which many workers can reach income levels above the poverty line. Thus, the structure of the market, primarily in terms of occupational segmentation can be an important means of combating or expansion of the pay gap, as argued in, for example, Amadeo et al (1994). If the occupational structure is important to explain the income gap, so how workers change occupational status (idle, employed or unemployed) or, once employed, how they can go out of certain occupational segment can change the setting of this differential. Examples of this relationship can be obtained by the evidence that workers can use occupational mobility to earn salary increases and as a way out of precarious work situations, such as informal or high incidence of involuntary unemployment (Contini and Villosio, 2000; Holzer et al , 2003; García Pérez and Sanz, 2005; Davia, 2006). 2

On the other hand, segmentation and occupational segregation are phenomena that limit the mobility of workers between status and type of occupation, causing, among other things, a change in occupational status only reproduce the uneven structure of allocation of labor throughout time, without signifying improvements in the social condition of the individual. Research reveals differences in mobility patterns among population groups, gender, race, and different levels of income. Overall, it seems that the mobility rate is higher among men than women (Gabriel, 2003; Parrado and Wolf, 1999) and that groups with higher incomes are more stable (Parrado et al , 2007). We also observe some restrictions on occupational mobility towards high yield occupations because this movement would be limited by discrimination, imperfect information, the disabled employment networks and the preference of agents (Holzer et al., 2003). Paci and Serneels (2007) show that there are significant barriers to occupational mobility between formal and informal segments, determined, among other factors, by education and access to capital. For the specific case of Brazil, Neri et al (1997) show a clear distinction between mobility behavior for formal and informal workers, which is significantly higher for the latter with less experienced individuals. In addition, the pattern of mobility is differentiated by gender and race, so that women and black Brazilians would be over-represented in low- paying occupations and would present occupational trajectories not always favorable, for example, a descendant excess mobility and a lower salary premium for changing occupation (Pinto and Neri, 2000). Previous results also show evidence that segmentation of the labor market can generate groups of workers with low experience and specific human capital, with no defined professional future. These workers tend to have greater difficulty in professional relocation and are likely to be more vulnerable to involuntary changes in employment or occupation. The results also seem to indicate the existence of an excess of involuntary mobility among the poorer workers or between specific demographic groups. Such mobility, according to the view of occupational matches, tends to generate negative impact on pay and on the welfare of individuals (McLaughlin, 1991). Therefore, it is verified that the occupational structure is important to explain the wage gap. On the one hand, the way that workers change occupation or how they manage to leave a occupational segment can change the configuration of the income distribution. On 3

the other hand, segmentation and occupational segregation are phenomena that limit the mobility of workers, so that, among other effects, a change of occupation only reproduces the unequal structure of labor allocation over time, without improving the social condition of the individual (Fitzenberger and Kuzne, 2005; Maltselva, 2005). That is, wage inequality can be influenced both by the occupational structure and by the workers' movements that alter this structure. The practical implication of these results is that public policies aimed at wage equalization should not only consider the present occupational situation of workers, but should also consider the level and quality of occupational movements. They must consider not only current wages, but also the possibilities of professional and socio-economic advancements throughout the life cycle. The generation of jobs concentrated in jobs or sectors of low mobility towards occupations of better status can accentuate the existing barriers, far from promoting the homogeneity of opportunities. In this way, it is important to identify which occupations are most used as a means of entry into the labor market or those that are the subject of public employment generation policies, verifying if they are sources of upward or downward mobility. Methodology The database used in this work is the Pesquisa Mensal do Emprego (Monthly Employment Survey - (PME)), conducted by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE)), during the period 2002 to 2016. The sample survey is made for six metropolitan regions of Brazil, namely Recife, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Porto Alegre. One of the main advantages of the database generated by this research is the ability to follow up the individual over time, for a period of up to one year. Two methods of analysis are used in this article. The first is a univariate analysis based on the work of Clark and Summers (1990), in which an individual's behavior according to their individual characteristics can be represented by a transition probability matrix, or Markov matrix. Thus, it portrays the dynamic mobility of individuals from occupations with different levels of qualification - high, medium and low - by the probability of 4