Do Economic Globalization and Industry Growth Destabilize Careers? An Analysis of Career Complexity and Career Patterns Over Time

Abstract

We analyze the impact of economic globalization and industry growth on the complexity of early work careers in Germany. We conceptualize complexity as the absolute number of employer changes, the regularity in the order of job changes, and the variability of the durations spent in different employment states. Results from empirical analyses based on the German Life History Study (N = 5453) show only a small increase in the complexity of work careers over the last decades, but there was a shift in the prevalence of different career patterns. This suggests that effects of globalization might be counteracted or modified by other social changes that affected work careers in Germany during the last 60 years. In particular, we consider the possible impact of educational expansion, labor market restructuring, and women's increased employment. We find no evidence that industry-specific economic globalization impacts the complexity of work careers, but we find a U-shaped relationship between industry growth and career complexity. Careers are slightly more complex in industries with high or low industry growth. We conclude that, while there has been a shift in career patterns over time, the impact of globalization on career stability is possibly overestimated.

Born under a lucky star? Latin American CEOs' perceptions about their own career development

“…As seen in Table 4, it is the only category mentioned by the whole sample (n ¼ 22). In line with previous empirical studies showing that business cycles and economic growth explain much variance in career-related behavior such as job mobility (Biemann, Fasang, & Grunow, 2011;Cornelißen, Hübler, & Schneck, 2007;Diebold, Neumark, & Polsky, 1997), choice of job mobility was cited by 20 out of 22 CEOs (90.9%). Likewise, in times of uncertainty, people tend to trust in personal connections (Granovetter, 1995;Lane, 1998) and we observed that active networking construction was mentioned by 18 out of 22 participants (81.8%).…”

Early Unemployment and Subsequent Career Complexity: A Sequence-Based Perspective

“…This takes into account the order of career states and quantifies the number of employment changes as well as the duration variation in different states 7 (Biemann et al, 2009). This implies that the more transitions and the higher the variation in the time spent in each state, the more complex careers are.…”

Do Different Methods for Modeling Age-Graded Trajectories Yield Consistent and Valid Results?

“…Abbott introduced OM for use in social science and historical research in the 1980s (Abbott 1983; 1995; Abbott and Forrest 1986; Abbott and Hrycak 1990). Although used for a variety of social science applications, OM has most frequently been employed to study trajectories or sequences of professional or working careers (e.g., Abbott and Hrycak 1990; Biemann, Fasang and Grunow 2011; Chan 1995; Halpin and Chan 1998; Han and Moen 1999; Stovel, Savage and Bearman 1996). …”