Labour market segmentation: the economic condition of independent professionals in Italy and Argentina

Abstract

This article focuses on the conditions of professional self-employed in the European and Latin American labour markets, whose increase is linked to the expansion of the on-demand service economy. Moving from a critique to the traditional segmentation theory, this group of highly skilled self-employed-an expression of the upper-middle class and post-industrial work-can be considered halfway between market and hierarchy, HR internalization and outsourcing. Dealing with social inequalities, the research questions are whether the conditions of these independent professionals who are characterized, on average, by higher levels of education and who work in the advanced service sectors) are comparable to employees and whether there are similar trends in the two contexts (specifically Italy and Argentina). The article presents empirical evidence on occupational income (as a dependent variable) to measure how working condition changes when controlling for socio-demographic characteristics (as independent variables) and occupation (self-employed or employee). Income levels were compared using two datasets: EPH-INDEC (Permanent Household Survey) for Argentina and ITA-SILC for Italy. Despite the limitations due to problems of comparison in the classification of occupations, the analysis highlights differences between the two countries linked to a dissimilar expansion of the service economy, professional services and outsourcing of high-skilled competences. Moreover, within a frame of high income inequalities in self-employment, graduate independent professionals in Argentina seem to retain a stronger economic performance, while in Italy they show lower earnings than other occupations, thus suggesting an unequal labour market impact of higher education in the two countries. Resumen. La segmentación del mercado de trabajo: la condición económica de los profesionales autónomos en Italia y ArgentinaEl artículo se centra en las condiciones de los trabajadores autónomos profesionales en los mercados laborales europeos y latinoamericanos, cuyo aumento está vinculado al desarrollo de la economía de servicios. Realizando una crítica a la tradicional teoría de segmentación, este grupo de trabajadores independientes altamente cualificados, expresión de la clase media alta y del trabajo postindustrial, se puede considerar a medio camino entre el mercado y la jerarquía, entre la internalización de recursos humanos y la subcontratación. Considerando las desigualdades sociales, la pregunta es si las condiciones de estos profesionales independientes, caracterizados por niveles de educación más altos y que trabajan en los sectores de servicios avanzados, son comparables a las de los empleados (específicamente en Italia y Argentina). El artículo investiga el ingreso laboral (como variable dependiente) para evaluar cómo ello cambia considerando la ocupación (autónomo o empleado) y las características sociodemográficas (como variables independientes). La comparación de los ingresos se realizó utilizando dos conjuntos de datos: EPH-INDEC (Encues...