Older workers view youth as a labour market asset
Published: 20 May 2007
In October 2006, the Public Opinion Research Centre (Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínĕní, CVVM [1]) of the Institute of Sociology at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic conducted a survey on /Quality of working life 2006/. The survey was carried out in cooperation with the Occupational Safety Research Institute (Výzkumný ústav bezpečnosti práce, VUBP [2]). Some 2,043 economically active Czech citizens were interviewed for the survey: accordingly, they were asked to rate their position in their current job and to consider their assets and disadvantages in the labour market.[1] http://www.cvvm.cas.cz/[2] http://www.vubp.cz/
The majority of Czech workers are not concerned about losing their current job. However, if they were forced to look for a new job, a significant proportion of people believe that it would be more difficult for them to find a job equally as good as their present post. These are among the findings of a study conducted by the Public Opinion Research Centre of the Institute of Sociology in 2006.
In October 2006, the Public Opinion Research Centre (Centrum pro výzkum veřejného mínĕní, CVVM) of the Institute of Sociology at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic conducted a survey on Quality of working life 2006. The survey was carried out in cooperation with the Occupational Safety Research Institute (Výzkumný ústav bezpečnosti práce, VUBP). Some 2,043 economically active Czech citizens were interviewed for the survey: accordingly, they were asked to rate their position in their current job and to consider their assets and disadvantages in the labour market.
Survey findings
Fear of job loss and securing a new job
Almost two thirds (65%) of economically active Czech citizens rate their current position at work positively and are not worried about losing their present job. The remaining one third of workers have some concerns: 6% of the respondents stated that they were very concerned about losing their current job, while 25% indicated that they were fairly concerned. In general, it is mostly the people who would probably have trouble finding a new job who are afraid of losing their current job. In 78% of cases, people afraid of losing their job believe that it would be hard to find a job equally as good. Just under half of the workers (47%) who do not fear job loss believe that they would have difficulties finding a new job. Fear of job loss is most frequently found among workers with lower educational qualifications (primary or incomplete secondary education), people engaged in unskilled work and workers aged between 45 and 59 years. Fear of job loss is also higher among women (37%) than among men (25%). In terms of sectoral differences, workers showed the greatest concerns in sectors such as the processing industry, the automotive industry, trade and repair of consumer goods, and in transport, storage and communications.
The majority of Czech workers (57%) believe it would be difficult to find a job that is as good as their present position. Substantial differences emerged in the responses to this question between men and women (see Table 1). Women are less confident about their chances of finding a new job: only 11% of working women believe it would be easy for them to find a job as good as their current one compared with 18% of the men surveyed.
| Men % | Women% | Total % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very easy | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Fairly easy | 15 | 9 | 13 |
| Neither easy nor difficult | 29 | 27 | 28 |
| Fairly difficult | 36 | 41 | 38 |
| Very difficult | 17 | 21 | 19 |
Source: Quality of working life, 2006
Labour market assets
The surveyed Czech workers were then asked to try to identify their greatest assets in relation to the labour market; respondents were allowed to give a maximum of three different answers or to offer no answer at all. Almost four in 10 respondents (38%) stated that they can offer employers integrity, conscientiousness, reliability, care or responsibility. Roughly the same percentage of respondents considered that employers might appreciate their extensive work experience and general experience most of all. More than one third (35%) of workers stated that their greatest advantages are their willingness to work, diligent nature, individual efforts and sense of initiative.
In addition to their best assets in the labour market, the respondents also assessed their greatest disadvantages, in other words the factors that mostly diminish their chances of finding a good job. Almost one third (32%) of the respondents stated that they consider their age to be their greatest obstacle. Generally, it was mostly workers over 45 years of age who held this opinion. It thus appears that a large proportion of economically active Czechs – particularly older people – consider youth to be an advantage in the labour market, even though being young is linked to a lack of experience. Table 2 shows the proportion of respondents who think that their biggest obstacle in the labour market is their age or lack of experience in different age groups.
| 15–29 years | 30–44 years | 45–59 years | Over 60 years | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age | 8.8% | 14% | 60.7% | 75.9% |
| Lack of experience | 23.5% | 4.3% | 2.0% | 0.0% |
Source: Quality of working life, 2006
The second largest group of respondents (25%) identified a lack of education and qualifications, or possibly insufficient specialisation, as their principal disadvantage. More than one fifth (23%) of the respondents stated that an insufficient knowledge of foreign languages would mainly hinder their efforts to find a job.
Reference
This paper was compiled with the support of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic (Ministerstvo Práce a Sociálních Vĕcí, MPSV) as an outcome of the project ‘Influence of changes in the world of work on the quality of life’ (registration number 1J039/05-DP1); the latter is part of the TP-5 project on ‘Modern societies and their transformations’.
Naděžda Čadová, Public Opinion Research Centre, Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Eurofound recommends citing this publication in the following way.
Eurofound (2007), Older workers view youth as a labour market asset, article.
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