Approaches to Skills Mismatch in the Labour Market: A Literature Review

Abstract

Skills mismatch in the labour market describes the fact that levels or types of skills of individuals are inadequate in view of particular job requirements. There exists no accepted unified theory of skills mismatch. The overeducation literature, inspired by several classical theoretical frameworks (human capital theory, job competition, and assignment models), attempts to define and measure the incidence of the phenomenon, but often understates the heterogeneity of both jobs and manpower. Some authors have tried to make up for this deficit by focusing on specific groups or individual abilities. By contrast, a competence approach places the observed no-causality relationship between training and occupation at the centre of its analysis, rather than considering it as a market imperfection. By doing so, it provides an alternative way of conceptualising skills mismatch, and promisingly challenges the normative assumptions and current applications of the classical frameworks. Key words: labour market; mismatch; skills; competences; overeducation. Resumen. Análisis del desajuste de competencias en el mercado laboral: un estado de la cuestiónEl desajuste de competencias en el mercado de trabajo describe el hecho de que el nivel y/o el tipo de formación de los individuos no se adecuan a aquellos que requieren sus puestos de trabajo. A pesar de que la literatura de la sobreeducación, inspirada en los marcos teóricos clásicos (básicamente la teoría del capital humano), intenta definir y medir la incidencia del desajuste, no existe una teoría unificada sobre dicho fenómeno. Sin embargo, estos análisis omiten a menudo la heterogeneidad, tanto de los puestos de trabajo como de la Guillem Sala propia mano de obra. Algunos autores se han enfrentado a este vacío desde distintas perspectivas (grupos específicos, habilidades individuales, etc.). Más allá, un enfoque basado en competencias sitúa la relación no causal observada entre formación y empleo en el centro de su análisis, más que considerarla como una imperfección del mercado. Así, ofrece una vía alternativa para conceptualizar el desajuste de competencias y cuestiona los supuestos normativos que subyacen en las perspectivas clásicas.

Antecedents of youths who are not in employment, education or training: Micro-level evidence

“…Within the realm of human capital lies the issue of skills mismatch. Sala (2011) argues that holding other factors constant, young individuals may fall into NEET status because of disparities in their proficiency and acquisition of relevant skills, thus contributing to mismatch. This situation arises when there are discrepancies between the skills acquired by potential employees and those required by employers, leading to an inability to fill vacancies (Pitan & Adedeji 2012).…”

Skill shortages and skill mismatch: A review of the literature

“…Both approaches are reviewed in detail by Mc Guiness et al. (2017), and discussed by Allen and van der Velden (2001), Green and McIntosh (2007); Hartog (2000); Sala (2011); Quintini (2011).…”

“…Skill requirements and the quality of matches are identified either (a) by asking employees whether they have the skills required to do a more demanding job that their current one or whether training is needed to carry out the job in a satisfactory way (self-reported mismatch) or (b) by the individual measurement of cognitive skills (literacy, numeracy and problem solving) and the comparison of attained values with average or median values in the occupation, which are used as proxies of job requirements (realized-matches mismatch). Both approaches are reviewed in detail by Mc Guiness et al (2017), and discussed by Allen and van der Velden (2001), Green and McIntosh (2007); Hartog (2000); Sala (2011); Quintini (2011).…”

Talents and innovations: Case of Serbia

“…Serbia's GII (54) is better than Serbia's Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) (72) and GDP per capita PPP (75). As the GII consists of two components (innovation inputs and innovation outputs), the data indicate that Serbia had significantly improved its inputs and now ranks as 50th in the world compared to two years ago when it was at 62nd place.…”

“…Our research has been conducted in innovation-driven development in the last four years. We have presented the current state of Serbian innovation-driven development, where we emphasized the importance of Research and Development (R&D) and education for such improvement [72]. The conducted research was based on the survey done among high-tech IT companies, and since the investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) among companies in Serbia is 0.7% of profit, and far below the global average of 3.5% [80], through the next research, we have moved the focus on digital transformation [73].…”