Not everyone is engaged: an innovative approach to measure engagement levels on the labor market

Carole Chartouni; Robert Holzmann; Gustavo N. Paez

Open Access

Not everyone is engaged: an innovative approach to measure engagement levels on the labor market

Carole Chartouni

Robert Holzmann

and

Gustavo N. Paez

| Sep 30, 2020

IZA Journal of Labor Policy

Volume 10 (2020): Issue 1 (March 2020)

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajolp-2020-0010

Keywords
labor engagement, labor barriers, labor preferences, latent variables

© 2020 Carole Chartouni, Robert Holzmann, Gustavo N. Paez, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Preferences by age – mean comparison.Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Hierarchical clustering for OLF women.Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Share of unemployed men by education level.Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Share of unemployed women by education level.Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Share of unemployed men by age range.Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Share of unemployed women by marital status.Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Reservation wages – unemployed men.Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Reservation wages – unemployed women.Source: Authors’ elaboration.

PCA scores for OLF women

	Variable	Weight
Preferences	Correlation	Pearson	Spearman
1	reasons_not_working	0.58	0.59
2	women_mixing_thoughts	0.4	0.39
3	women_work_attitude	0.43	0.43
4	work_attitude	0.56	0.56

Baseline and assumptions on control and treatment outcomes

	Baseline (B)		Control (C)	Treatment (T)
Question	Mean	SD	Mean	Mean
Actual application	0.49	0.50	0.49	0.49
CV updates	1.68	1.59	1.68	3.00
Job search actions	0.76	1.31	1.20	1.60
Last application	1.44	1.63	1.44	1.44
Number of applications	1.32	2.48	1.32	1.32
Recent search actions	1.61	1.73	1.70	2.10
Job seriousness	2.61	0.49	2.61	2.90
Search time	3.97	5.39	3.97	5.00

Barriers

Identifier	Explanation	OLF	Unemployed	Employed	Men	Women
barriers_not_work	Self-identified reasons why the individual has no job	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
family_influence	Other members of the family have suggested the individual not to work	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
particular_barriers	Particular barriers that individuals face (looking for/ during their) jobs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
women_guardian_hours	Amount of hours that a guardian allows a woman to work	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
women_guardian_mixing	If the guardian allows mixing working environments	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
women_guardian_ transport	Types of transport allowed by the guardian	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
women_guardian_work	If the guardian allows women to work	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
women_hours_housecare	Hours dedicated to household chores	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
women_housecare	Availability of a domestic worker	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
women_own_transport	Types of transport acceptable for women	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes

Intensity

Identifier	Explanation	OLF	Unemployed	Employed	Men	Women
actual_application	People that applied for jobs	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
cv_update	People that updated their CVs	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
do_shifts	People willing to do working shifts	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
extra_hours	Number of extra hours that people are willing to do	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
future_job_search	People willing to look for a job in the future	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
job_search_actions	Number of job search actions	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
last_applications	Time when the last application was done	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
last_search	Time when the last research was done	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
multiple_job	Identify people with multiple jobs	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
num_applications	Number of applications done by the individual	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
recent_search_actions	Number of recent search actions done	No	Yes	No	No	No
search_time	Hours dedicated to job search	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
serious_job_search	How serious is the job search	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

Dimension indices Weights of each of the PCAs performed for the three dimensions and the overall index.

				Pearson		Spearman
Work status	Gender	Dimension	Variables	PC1	PC2	PC1	PC2
OLF	Men	Barriers	Component Variance	0.28	0.48	0.28	0.48
		1	barriers_not_work_10	0.43	0.01	0.43	0.01
		2	particular_barriers_2	0.53	0.03	0.53	0.03
		3	particular_barriers_3	0.45	0.05	0.45	0.05
		4	particular_barriers_4	0.57	0.03	0.57	0.03
		5	family_influences	⁻0.06	1	⁻0.06	1
		Intensity	Component Variance	0.54	1	0.54	1
		1	last_search	0.71	0.71	0.71	0.71
		2	future_job_search	0.71	⁻0.71	0.71	⁻0.71
		Preferences	Component Variance	0.65	1	0.65	1
		1	reasons_not_working	0.71	0.71	0.71	0.71
		2	work_attitude	0.71	⁻0.71	0.71	⁻0.71
	Women	Barriers	Component Variance	0.12	0.23	0.12	0.23
		1	barriers_not_work_6	0.26	0.04	0.24	0.02
		2	barriers_not_work_10	0.23	⁻0.37	0.22	⁻0.41
		3	particular_barriers_2	0.33	⁻0.33	0.31	⁻0.36
		4	particular_barriers_3	0.23	⁻0.33	0.22	⁻0.37
		5	particular_barriers_4	0.42	⁻0.23	0.38	⁻0.26
		6	particular_barriers_9	0.06	⁻0.02	0.04	⁻0.01
		7	women_guardian_mixing	0.26	0.01	0.25	0.04
		8	women_guardian_transport	0.4	0.25	0.43	0.24
		9	women_own_transport	0.35	0.28	0.39	0.27
		10	women_guardian_work	0.15	0.43	0.15	0.37
		11	women_housecare	0.2	0.04	0.26	0.07
		12	women_hours_housecare	0.21	⁻0.04	0.24	⁻0.01
		13	family_influences	0.29	0.36	0.27	0.31
		14	women_guardian_hours	⁻0.03	0.37	0	0.35
		Intensity	Component Variance	0.53	1	0.54	1
		1	future_job_search	0.71	0.71	0.71	0.71
		2	last_search	0.71	⁻0.71	0.71	⁻0.71
		Preferences	Component Variance	0.37	0.61	0.38	0.62
		1	reasons_not_working	0.58	0.34	0.59	0.25
		2	women_mixing_thoughts	0.4	⁻0.9	0.39	⁻0.85
		3	women_work_attitude	0.43	0.27	0.43	0.45
		4	work_attitude	0.56	0.08	0.56	⁻0.02
Unemployed	Men	Barriers	Component Variance	0.31	0.53	0.31	0.53
		1	barriers_not_work_10	0.36	0.57	0.36	0.57
		2	particular_barriers_2	0.51	0.38	0.51	0.38
		3	particular_barriers_3	0.5	⁻0.13	0.5	⁻0.13
		4	particular_barriers_4	0.51	⁻0.23	0.51	⁻0.23
		5	particular_barriers_8	0.32	⁻0.68	0.32	⁻0.68
		Intensity	Component Variance	0.23	0.4	0.23	0.4
		1	actual_applications	0.52	0.29	0.5	0.3
		2	cv_update	0.38	⁻0.19	0.37	⁻0.15
		3	job_search_actions	0.14	⁻0.51	0.2	⁻0.49
		4	last_applications	0.53	0.26	0.5	0.25
		5	num_applications	0.46	0.11	0.48	0.21
		6	recent_search_actions	0.24	⁻0.43	0.24	⁻0.43
		7	serious_job_search	0.09	⁻0.41	0.1	⁻0.46
		8	search_time	0.12	⁻0.44	0.17	⁻0.37
		Preferences	Component Variance	0.16	0.3	0.17	0.31
		1	job_flexibility	0.36	0.18	0.44	0.04
		2	min_work_hours	0.56	⁻0.27	0.53	⁻0.08
		3	reasons_not_working	0.02	0.59	⁻0.09	0.53
		4	work_flex	0.2	0.18	0.3	⁻0.05
		5	work_hours	0.56	⁻0.23	0.54	0
		6	work_shift	0.17	0.49	0.12	0.52
		7	relocate_willingess	0.12	⁻0.07	0.08	⁻0.16
		8	work_attitude	0.07	0.43	⁻0.1	0.57
		9	attitude_requirements	0.41	0.16	0.33	0.29
	Women	Barriers	Component Variance	0.1	0.2	0.11	0.2
		1	barriers_not_work_5	0.04	0.15	0.03	0.16
		2	barriers_not_work_6	0.26	0.19	0.21	0.26
		3	barriers_not_work_10	0.12	0.43	0.13	0.41
		4	particular_barriers_2	0.24	0.38	0.23	0.35
		5	particular_barriers_3	0.18	0.38	0.14	0.34
		6	particular_barriers_4	0.08	0.42	0.06	0.41
		7	particular_barriers_8	⁻0.04	0.17	⁻0.03	0.16
		8	particular_barriers_9	0.17	⁻0.23	0.14	⁻0.15
		9	women_guardian_hours	0.11	⁻0.17	0.24	⁻0.29
		10	women_guardian_mixing	0.38	0	0.42	0
		11	women_guardian_transport	0.53	⁻0.24	0.5	⁻0.26
		12	women_own_transport	0.55	⁻0.19	0.51	⁻0.21
		13	women_guardian_work	0.18	⁻0.17	0.14	⁻0.06
		14	women_housecare	0.06	0.21	0.06	0.19
		15	women_hours_housecare	0.13	0.1	0.26	0.25
		Intensity	Component Variance	0.24	0.39	0.25	0.41
		1	actual_applications	0.49	0.23	0.51	0.16
		2	cv_update	0.38	0.17	0.37	0.12
		3	job_search_actions	0.22	⁻0.52	0.14	⁻0.62
		4	last_applications	0.51	0.22	0.52	0.16
		5	num_applications	0.44	0.01	0.48	0.1
		6	recent_search_actions	0.24	⁻0.46	0.21	⁻0.56
		7	serious_job_search	0.23	⁻0.24	0.2	⁻0.11
		8	search_time	0.03	⁻0.57	0.06	⁻0.46
		Preferences	Component Variance	0.15	0.26	0.15	0.26
		1	job_flexibility	0.3	0.44	0.36	0.22
		2	min_work_hours	0.52	⁻0.24	0.5	⁻0.15
		3	reasons_not_working	0.05	0.14	0	0.04
		4	women_mixing_thoughts	0.36	0.11	0.39	⁻0.07
		5	women_work_attitude	0.09	0.42	0.07	0.45
		6	work_flex	0.21	0.59	0.2	0.52
		7	work_hours	0.49	⁻0.24	0.49	⁻0.05
		8	work_shift	0.29	⁻0.1	0.25	⁻0.32
		9	relocate_willingess	0.13	⁻0.16	0.2	⁻0.37
		10	work_attitude	0.33	⁻0.17	0.28	0.11
		11	attitude_requirements	⁻0.03	⁻0.28	⁻0.07	⁻0.44
Employed	Men	Barriers	Component Variance	0.52	0.84	0.52	0.84
		1	particular_barriers_2	0.41	0.91	0.41	0.91
		2	particular_barriers_3	0.65	⁻0.24	0.65	⁻0.24
		3	particular_barriers_4	0.64	⁻0.34	0.64	⁻0.34
		Intensity	Component Variance	0.36	0.69	0.38	0.71
		1	multiple_job	0.37	0.91	0.32	0.93
		2	extra_hours	0.68	⁻0.14	0.69	⁻0.1
		3	do_shifts	0.64	⁻0.38	0.65	⁻0.36
		Preferences	Component Variance	0.29	0.54	0.3	0.55
		1	work_hours	0.35	0.73	0.45	0.6
		2	mixed_gender_environment	0.58	⁻0.3	0.53	⁻0.41
		3	work_attitude	⁻0.51	0.51	⁻0.49	0.55
		4	attitude_requirements	0.54	0.34	0.52	0.41
	Women	Barriers	Component Variance	0.16	0.31	0.16	0.32
		1	particular_barriers_2	0.6	0.06	0.59	0.1
		2	particular_barriers_3	0.56	0.06	0.55	0.1
		3	particular_barriers_4	0.44	0.06	0.44	0.08
		4	particular_barriers_8	0.36	0.01	0.35	0.04
		5	women_guardian_hours	0	⁻0.37	0.01	⁻0.4
		6	women_guardian_mixing	0.01	⁻0.38	0.02	⁻0.37
		7	women_guardian_transport	0.07	⁻0.58	0.12	⁻0.56
		8	women_own_transport	0.09	⁻0.6	0.14	⁻0.57
		9	women_housecare	0.01	⁻0.12	0.01	⁻0.12
		10	women_hours_housecare	⁻0.02	0.01	0	⁻0.15
		Intensity	Component Variance	0.34	0.68	0.35	0.68
		1	multiple_job	0.55	0.62	0.54	0.68
		2	extra_hours	0.4	⁻0.79	0.52	⁻0.73
		3	do_shifts	0.73	⁻0.04	0.66	0.02
		Preferences	Component Variance	0.23	0.41	0.24	0.42
		1	women_mixing_thoughts	0.55	0.08	0.53	0.01
		2	women_work_attitude	0.53	0.2	0.51	0.3
		3	work_hours	0.28	⁻0.54	0.37	⁻0.44
		4	mixed_gender_environment	0.56	0.01	0.53	⁻0.04
		5	work_attitude	⁻0.15	0.26	⁻0.2	0.03
		6	attitude_requirements	⁻0.04	⁻0.77	⁻0.04	⁻0.85

Engagement levels of clusters

Labor Market Group	Preferences	Intensity	Barriers	RELI
OLF – Men
Cluster 1	−0.25	−3.00	1.38	−1.86
Cluster 2	−1.84	0.38	−0.16	−1.62
Cluster 3	0.59	0.36	−0.97	−0.02
Cluster 4	0.66	0.36	0.15	1.18

OLF – Women
Cluster 1	−0.59	−3.37	1.28	−2.68
Cluster 2	−1.51	−0.54	−0.07	−2.12
Cluster 3	1.05	0.12	−0.31	0.87
Cluster 4	1.02	1.80	0.22	3.04

Unemployed – Men
Cluster 1	−1.91	0.27	−1.17	−2.80
Cluster 2	0.15	−2.87	0.49	−2.23
Cluster 3	1.03	0.80	−1.66	0.16
Cluster 4	0.17	0.57	1.22	1.96

Unemployed – Women
Cluster 1	−0.09	−1.00	−1.30	−2.38
Cluster 2	−1.23	−0.71	0.74	−1.19
Cluster 3	1.57	1.64	−1.56	1.65
Cluster 4	0.87	1.38	2.16	4.41

Employed – Men
Cluster 1	−0.54	0.08	−0.77	−1.24
Cluster 2	−0.75	0.08	0.45	−0.22
Cluster 3	1.00	0.08	−0.74	0.34
Cluster 4	1.25	−0.39	1.51	2.37

Employed – Women
Cluster 1	−0.07	−10.88	−0.32	−11.27
Cluster 2	−0.80	0.15	−0.50	−1.15
Cluster 3	−0.50	0.16	1.76	1.42
Cluster 4	1.80	0.21	0.34	2.35
Labor market group	Preferences	Intensity	Barriers	RELI

Clusters of unemployed men and women: profiles and interventions

	Profiles by engagement dimension				Intervention focus by engagement dimension
	Preferences	Intensity	Barriers	RELI	Preferences	Intensity	Barriers	Comments
Unemployed Men
Cluster 1	Well below	Below	Average	Well below	Attitude change	Job search motivation	Education and skills	Hardest to place; starting with regional focus is suggested
Cluster 2	Average	Above	Well below	Well below	Correcting expectations		Education, skills, and English	Young group; 90% are single
Cluster 3	Well above	Well below	Above	Average		Job search skills, counseling, etc.		Job intermediation and motivation
Cluster 4	Above	Well above	Above	Well above	Reservation wage and job attitude			Ready for the labor market but perhaps in different sectors

Unemployed Women
Cluster 1	Average	Below	Well below	Well below	Attitude change	Job search motivation and skills	Education, skills, and gender barriers	Hardest to place as interventions required in all engagement dimensions
Cluster 2	Below	Above	Well below	Below		Intermediation services with focus on gender-adequate jobs	Interventions toward influencers
Cluster 3	Well above	Well below	Well above	Above		Job search skills, counseling, placement assistance, etc.		Regional concentration
Cluster 4	Above	Well above	Well above	Well above				Ready for the labor market but demand may be missing; focus sector to be explored

Preferences

Identifier	Explanation	OLF	Unemployed	Employed	Men	Women
attitude_requirements	Type of jobs that are considered acceptable	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
job_flexibility	Constraints on the jobs that the person is willing to accept	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
min_work_hours	Minimum hours that the person is willing to work	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
mixed_gender_ environments	Does the working space have gender-mixing environments	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
reasons_not_working	Reasons why the individual is not working	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
relocate_willingess	Willingness to reallocate to find a job	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
women_mixing_ thoughts	Attitude toward gender-mixing environments	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
women_work_attitude	Attitude toward women working	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
work_attitude	Attitude toward work	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
work_flex	Flexible working conditions	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
work_hours	Amount of working (or willing to work) hours	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
work_shifts	Willingness to do work shifts	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

Intensity index calculator

	PCA score (W)	Standardized value control (SC)	Standardized value treatment (ST)	Weighted value control	Weighted value treatment

Formula		$\frac{\bar{X_{C}} - \bar{X_{B}}}{S_{B}}$ $\frac{\overline{{{X}_{C}}}-\overline{{{X}_{B}}}}{{{S}_{B}}}$	$\frac{\bar{X_{T}} - \bar{X_{B}}}{S_{B}}$ $\frac{\overline{{{X}_{T}}}-\overline{{{X}_{B}}}}{{{S}_{B}}}$	$\frac{W}{\sqrt{L}} S C$ $\frac{W}{\sqrt{L}}SC$	$\frac{W}{\sqrt{L}} S T$ $\frac{W}{\sqrt{L}}ST$
Actual application	0.49	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
CV updates	0.38	0.00	0.83	0.00	0.65
Job search actions	0.22	0.33	0.64	0.15	0.29
Last application	0.51	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Number of applications	0.44	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Resent search actions	0.24	0.05	0.28	0.03	0.14
Job seriousness	0.23	0.00	0.59	0.00	0.28
Search time	0.03	0.00	0.19	0.00	0.01
PCA variance (L)	0.24		Intensity	0.18	1.36

eISSN:: 2193-9004
Language:: English

Publication timeframe:: Volume Open
Journal Subjects:: Business and Economics, Political Economics, Microeconomics, Macroecomics, Economic Policy, Mathematics and Statistics for Economists, Econometrics

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Not everyone is engaged: an innovative approach to measure engagement levels on the labor market

Published Online: Sep 30, 2020

Page range: -

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajolp-2020-0010

Keywords
labor engagement, labor barriers, labor preferences, latent variables

© 2020 Carole Chartouni, Robert Holzmann, Gustavo N. Paez, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

PCA scores for OLF women

Baseline and assumptions on control and treatment outcomes

Barriers

Intensity

Dimension indices Weights of each of the PCAs performed for the three dimensions and the overall index.

Engagement levels of clusters

Clusters of unemployed men and women: profiles and interventions

Preferences

Intensity index calculator

Not everyone is engaged: an innovative approach to measure engagement levels on the labor market

Published Online: Sep 30, 2020

Page range: -

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/izajolp-2020-0010

Keywordslabor engagement, labor barriers, labor preferences, latent variables

© 2020 Carole Chartouni, Robert Holzmann, Gustavo N. Paez, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

PCA scores for OLF women

Baseline and assumptions on control and treatment outcomes

Barriers

Intensity

Dimension indices Weights of each of the PCAs performed for the three dimensions and the overall index.

Engagement levels of clusters

Clusters of unemployed men and women: profiles and interventions

Preferences

Intensity index calculator

Keywords
labor engagement, labor barriers, labor preferences, latent variables