Jobs for the low-educated: evidence from Norway, Italy and Hungary

Köllő, János (2013) Jobs for the low-educated: evidence from Norway, Italy and Hungary. GRINCOH Working Papers; WP 4.1 P4.4. . Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest.

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Abstract

Norway and Italy represent essentially different but to some extent successful models of providing the low-educated population with work. By contrast, Hungarians with primary school background face an extremely high risk of social exclusion, similar to their counterparts in most other post-communist countries. Using data from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, the paper identifies two factors providing part of the explanation for this failure. On the one hand, low-educated Hungarians lack a series of basic competencies, which allow unskilled Norwegians to work in skill-intensive jobs. The data hint at a dramatic degree of social isolation that further deteriorates their skills and jobs prospects. On the other hand, while skills deficiencies occur even more frequently in Italy, the country’s sizeable small-firm sector provides a shelter for the unskilled. The double burden of insufficient skills (relative to Norway) and having an undersized and skill-intensive small-firm sector (relative to Italy) significantly contributes to non-employment among low-educated Hungarians.

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