The Secondary Market – Job Tenure

Samuel Rosenberg has also argued, the average tenure even for secondary workers is several years, suggesting that at least some secondary workers stay at their jobs for relatively long periods and are not perpetual job-changers. Robert Buchele also found that secondary workers had relatively high tenure. These findings reinforce the view that it is the lack of job security and the ever-present possibility of immediate replacement by others from the reserve army that marks a secondary job. If some secondary workers (especially those studied by Doeringer and Piore) respond to this situation by choosing to change jobs frequently, others (those studied by Rosenberg and Buchele) asses their chances differently and remain at a single job. All secondary workers, however, experience the lack of job protection and the immediate possibility of replacement.

Recent research of Carnoy and Rumberger helped flesh out other aspects of secondary employment. Defined evidence that secondary jobs dead-end employment in the sense that additional experience does not lead to higher earnings. Thus, in their sample the wage profile–the curve showing how much wages rise with increasing age–is flat, showing no wage increase for black secondary workers from the workers until about fifty years of age (thereafter wages tend to fall); in finding is reproduced in both Buchele’s and Osterman’s studies, where labor force experience (or age) contributes so little to earnings that it is statistically insignificant. And David Gordon found that among black males in the secondary market, the age-wage profile is entirely flat, while among primary workers, wages rise with age.

Another characteristics of secondary jobs that is well supported in these studies is the small return to education. Buchele found that for workers with less than a high school education, there was a slight benefit for each year of schooling achieved, but secondary workers got no additional return for any further schooling, although occupational training did help. In Osterman’s sample, the effect of education in increasing earning was four to six times greater for primary workers than for secondary workers; in fact, he return that secondary workers obtained from an extra year of education was so slight that statistically we cannot be sure it is different from zero, and the findings applied to all secondary males, whether white or black. Similar results, though stronger for black secondary workers, were obtained by Gordon and by Carnoy and Rumberger.

Thus, labor market research seems to bear out the conclusion that the secondary market is indeed a distinct market, characterized both by different market outcomes and different market processes. It contains low-paying jobs of casual labor, jobs that provide little employment security or stability and for which the links between one job a worker may hold and the next are slight. These are dead-end jobs offering little opportunity for advancement, requiring few skills. Neither seniority nor education seems to pay off. And since employers have little investment in matching workers and their jobs, they feel free to replace or dismiss workers as their labor needs change.

Alberta Job Shark – Sherwood Park Auto Dealers

The Secondary Market – Job Tenure

Job Tenure
One way of measuring tenure differences is to compare job tenure rates among groups heavily represented in the primary market (essentially white males) with those in the secondary markets (teenagers, black male, black females, all females over 25). Leaving aside the necessarily low job tenure among all categories of teenagers. White males starting at the age of 25 have consistently longer job tenure than members of any of the other groups and that the absolute gap increases with age. In 1968 among workers 50 to 54 years old, for example, white males had occupied their current jobs for 12.8 years, compared to only indirect, since demographically defined groups must be used as proxies for market-segmented categories.

A more direct test can be inferred from data reported by David Gordon, since his analysis places workers in primary or secondary jobs. Both first-job tenure and present-job tenure were significantly higher for primary than for secondary workers in his samples. In Robert Buchele’s sample of middle-aged white males, workers in secondary jobs were found to have significantly lower tenure (11.3 years) than either subordinate primary workers (13.8 years) or independent primary supervisory workers (15.2 years). Gordon’s analysis of other measures of employment stability – weeks worked per year, whether or not the worker looked for work during the year, and several stability-related personal background variables (such as marital status, whether the worker was a head of household, years in labor force, and so on) — further supports the idea that employment stability constitutes a significant difference between segments. Similarly, Samuel Rosenberg found that when occupations were classified into secondary and primary markets, workers in primary jobs had greater seniority than secondary workers in all four of the cities he studied. These results offer confirmation of the results obtained from looking at tenure differences among demographically defined groups; secondary employment seems to be associated with much more frequent job changes.

Alberta Job Shark – Sherwood Park Auto Dealers

The Secondary Market

The studies employed quite different techniques for categorizing into segments and the samples reflect quite different underlying populations. Nonetheless, the results seem impressively similar. Consider pay, for example. In Paul Osterman’s study, secondary workers’ annual earnings in 1967 averaged only 69 percent of the average earnings of primary workers. Martin Carnoy and Rusell Rumberger found that seconday workers’ annual earnings ($5,690 in 1970) averaged 70 percent of the mean annual earnings of independent primary workers. Samuel Rosenberg found that the average hourly wage in secondary jobs, while average annual income of secondary workers fell between 74 to 80 percent of the average for primary workers. In a David Gordon’s original study, hourly pay and annual incomes in the seconday market averaged 86 percent of pay and income in the primary market. Robert Buchele, in what is probably the most careful study to date, did not use pay as a criterion for categorizing jobs; instead he looked at intrinsic characteristics of the work itself. He found that among white middle-aged males, secondary workers’ annual earnings averaged 81 percent of the earnings of subordinate primary workers and between 53 and 76 percent of the earnings of independent primary workers.

From all these studies it reflects that the wages associated with secondary work range from two-thirds to four-fifths of the wages for primary jobs. The finding that secondary workers earn less than primary workers is hardly news, since having a low wage was frequently among the criteria defining secondary status in the first place. what this research does do, however, is indicate the extent of the wages differential, one of the job characteristics included in the cluster that defines the segment.

Alberta Job Shark – Sherwood Park Auto Dealers

Shadow World

Cross-functional team projects

One key value of cross-functional teams is that participants meet and work with people from every organizational department. They learn to view problems from a broader perspective and become exposed to different viewpoints, personalities and objectives. Additional skills will be developed in listening, presenting and defending ideas, problem solving and consensus building.

Special assignments or study projects

Special assignments can be quite exciting. An individual project leader can learn to direct a small specialist or multifunctional team. As well, they will learn project and resource planning as they face the challenge of tight deadlines. Projects also hone specialist skills and develop communication strengths as information is shared between colleagues, external professionals, customers or suppliers.

External specialist committees

Employee representation in an industry or professional association is an excellent development activity. It allows a company to quickly glean knowledge about leading edge trends impacting an industry while at the same time providing subtle marketing for your business. The employee will develop board leadership skills as well as marketing, events management and financial skills.

Alberta Job Shark Sherwood Park Auto Dealers

The Secondary Market

Secondary market, is the preserve of casual labor – “casual,” that is, not in the sweat required of the workers but rather in the lack of any worker rights or elaborate employer-imposed work structures. Here labor power comes closet to being treated simply as a commodity unfettered and unencumbered by any job structure, union, or other institutional constraints.

The secondary market includes many different types of jobs, and spans both production and non production work. Low-skill jobs in small, nonunion manufacturing concerns constitute one part of this market. “Service” employment — the jobs of janitors, waiters and waitresses, hospital orderlies, deliverymen and messengers, attendants, guards, personal care workers, and others — represents a second major component. Another group consists of the lower-level positions in retail and wholesale trade: slots filled by sales clerks, order-takers, check-out clerks, inventory stockers, and so forth. The secondary market also includes increasing numbers of the lowest-level clerical jobs, those typing, filing, key-punching, and other positions that have become part of the large typing (or records-filing and retrieval or key-punching) pools. Finally, we must add migrant agricultural labor, seasonal employment required for the peak periods of planting and especially harvesting. Although other jobs such as part-time teaching or textile work in the South also fall into the secondary-market segment, the above categories contain the mass of secondary employment. Maureen Agnati’s job, described in the first chapter, falls into the secondary market.

The casual nature of the employment marks these jobs as secondary. The work almost never requires previous training or education beyond literacy. Few skills are required an few can be learned. Such jobs offer to pay and virtually no job security. typically dead-end jobs, with few prospects for advancement and little reward for seniority in the form of either higher pay or a better job. With little incentive to stay, workers may move frequently, and turnover in these jobs tends to be high. The only thing that a worker brings to a secondary job is labor power where the worker is treated and paid accordingly.

Alberta Job Shark Sherwood Park Auto Dealers

Technical Training

It’s often said that training someone else is the best way to learn. In other words, training increases your technical expertise while developing numerous other skills. For instance it’s an excellent way to learn job skill assessment, individual needs analysis, develop on-the-job and group learning plans and apply different teaching/training strategies. And what better way to improve presentation skills?

Group facilitation

Rotating the role of chairperson or group facilator for team and employee meetings is another effective strategy for developing skills. It is often the first step taken prior to tackling external meetings and/or technical training. And chairing a meeting isn’t just a “piece of cake”. Just recall a previous meeting when emotions spilled over, tempers flared, agendas were put aside and no progress was made. No wonder, people hate meetings. Skills learned include meeting and agendas were put aside and no progress was made. No wonder, people hate meetings. Skills learned include meeting and agenda planning, participatory management, interpersonal communications, conflict resolution and consensus building.

Job Rotation

Job rotation has long been a development strategy in large businesses and can certainly be applied in small organizations. For instance, if you wish to develop a departmental supervisor, then rotating this individual through all the jobs within the department develops a strong understanding of all the tasks and requirements. In addition, the individual experiences first hand, some of the front-line frustrations. Not only will new skills be developed a new sense of understanding may also lead to procedural improvements.

Formal mentoring program

A new supervisor is an excellent candidate for formal mentoring. After all, it’s comforting to seek the advice of someone who has “been there, done that.” Mentors provide observation, listening, constructive criticism and feedback. Their understudies learn to resolve complex problems, understand organizational dynamics, and develop strategies for leading change.

Today, the groundhog will come out from hibernation, seek its shadow, and predict the weather. Bu while the groundhog can predict, it can’t control the weather. Fortunately, however, employers and employees can “weather” potential job satisfaction and work flexibility storms by applying creative employee development strategies.

Alberta Job Shark Sherwood Park Auto Dealers

Shadow World

Employees can learn from the best, right at work

A Groundhog Day! Look outside! Is it cloudy? Sunny?

Why? Because according to tradition, today’s the day the groundhog wakes up from hibernation, takes a cautious step out of its winter hideaway and predicts our weather for the next six weeks. It’s said that if he faces a clear sunny day and creates a shadow, then it’s a sure sign we’ll get six more weeks of winter. On the other hand, if there is no shadow because it’s cloudy, then we’ll welcome an early spring.

HIbernation

Perhaps you too are just “waking up from hibernation” to realize there’s no sure way to predict your career future. Or, as an employer, you might have just realized employee flexibility is indeed critical to business success. Actually, both parties face the same dilemma – how to create career and job satisfaction along with worker flexibility in a world of limited opportunities. Thankfully, there are creative solutions that can provide benefit to everyone.

Let’s take a lesson from the education system. Riding on the intrigue of Mr. Groundhog’s shadow, schools throughout the U.S. are launching a nationwide job shadowing program to help give students a first-hand look at the work world. Students are linked to participating employees and literally “follow around or shadow” these individuals in their workplace. As observers, the students can see first hand some of the tasks and responsibilities carried out by their chosen mentor. The experience has proven helpful to students they make decisions about career choices.

Shadowing is also an excellent way for employees to learn new jobs and skill in their own workplace.It can be accomplished over a scheduled period of time, having a number of different mentors. Participants can learn more sophisticated skills in their job category or learn completely new skills sets. The employer, job shadowing is a cost-effective training method that broadens skills and employee flexibility. The value of broader skills will quickly become evident when, in the case of illness, one worker can easily replace another.

There are a number of other creative learning and employee development strategies that can benefit both the employer. Some of these include participation in cross-functional team projects, special assignments or study projects, appointments to external specialist committees, training others, leading and facilitating team meetings, job rotation and participation in a formal mentoring/coaching program. Each strategy teaches numerous skills as outlined.

Alberta Job shark Sherwood Park Auto Dealers

Focus on Referees

Focus on More Than Gut Feeling

Alberta Job Shark – Jobs Seeking Tips

Fort McMurray Northern Ab Canadian Employment Shop Resource

The Secondary Market – Job Tenure

The Secondary Market – Job Tenure

The Secondary Market

Shadow World

The Secondary Market

Shadow World

Focus on Referees

Focus on More Than Gut Feeling

Focus on Process