Social networks and labour market outcomes in a meritocracy

Institutions and individual strategies: how did job seekers respond to the changing employment environment in urban China?

“…The use of guanxi seemed to have become salient in urban China's well-established market economy. This phenomenon echoes existing studies about the important role social capital plays in the market economy under the context of strong state power (Chua 2011(Chua , 2014. Findings about the changing patterns of the employment system in the 2000s show that family background becomes increasingly important in one's successful job acquisition over time, signalling a declining trend in social mobility as an equilibrium between state power and the market has been by and large achieved since 2003.…”

“…Thus, the differentiation between adherents and networkers within the job assignment system is crucial to reveal what types of resources still remained in the state-controlled system. However, the market channel, as a newly emerged and continuously growing institution, is assumed to attract both well-educated and well-connected individuals, since the roles education and informal ties play, respectively, have been well documented in various contexts of labour markets (Bian 1997;Chua 2011Chua , 2014Granovetter 1973;Liu et al 2016a, b;Xu et al 2016). We also need to emphasize that as the state sector was further marketized, job seekers increasingly entered the state sector through market competition, rather than the job assignment system.…”

“…Mobilized through informal ties, social capital has long been demonstrated to have a positive effect on labour market outcomes across societal contexts (Bian 1997;Chua 2011Chua , 2014Erickson 2001;Granovetter 1973;Lin 1999Lin , 2001). In their recent study, Bian et al (2015) have shown that the pervasive use of informal channels in job searches has at least remained unchanged, if not increased, in Chinese society.…”

Las redes personales en la inserción laboral juvenil en tiempos de crisis Un análisis en Barcelona

“…Así, en varios de estos estudios no se observa ninguna asociación entre el uso de contactos personales y la edad (McDonald et al, 2009;Smith, 2000;Wanberg et al, 2000), el sexo (Wanberg et al, 2000), el nivel educativo (Bachmann y Baumgarten, 2012; Lai et al, 1998;Marsden y Hurlbert, 1988) o la experiencia laboral previa (Lai et al, 1998). Por el contrario, otros análisis señalan que quienes más usan los contactos durante la búsqueda de empleo son las personas con una posición más débil en el mercado de trabajo (Lin, 2000), particularmente aquellas con menor nivel educativo (Chua, 2011;Mouw, 2003) y menor experiencia laboral (Marsden y Hurlbert, 1988). En el caso de España, los trabajos publicados en los años noventa (Ibáñez, 1999;Requena, 1991a) detectaron un mayor uso de los contactos en la búsqueda de empleo entre los jóvenes, personas con bajos niveles de cualificación y bajos niveles educativos.…”

“…While some studies have found that the use of contacts is similar among different social groups, others have detected a greater reliance on contacts among groups that are more poorly positioned in the labour market. Thus, several studies found no association between the use of personal contacts and age (McDonald et al, 2009;Smith, 2000;Wanberg et al, 2000), sex (Wanberg et al, 2000), education level (Bachmann and Baumgarten, 2012;Lai et al;1998;Marsden and Hurlbert, 1988) and prior experience (Lai et al, 1998), while others found that those who most use contacts in the search for employment are individuals in weak positions in the labour market (Lin, 2000), particularly those with low education levels (Chua, 2011;Mouw, 2003) and less job experience (Marsden and Hurlbert, 1988). In the case of Spain, studies published in the 1990s (Ibáñez, 1999;Requena, 1991a) found a greater reliance on contacts in job searching among young people and persons with low skills and low education levels.…”