Employment Opportunities of Less-educated Persons in Historical and Comparative Perspective

Research on economic marginalization of less-educated people mainly focuses on purely quantitative displacement mechanisms: the more high-skill supply there is in relation to the demand for high-skilled employees, the more the labor market position of the low-educated group deteriorates. In our research, we expand the explanation of economic marginalization –unemployment risks, socioeconomic status attainment and earnings – by also looking at qualitative characteristics of groups of low-educated people, and argue that negative competence selection, negative social selection, and discrediting mechanisms are also of importance (see Solga 2008). For investigation we use historical analyses as well as country comparison

• Solga, Heike (2009): "Bildungsarmut und Ausbildungslosigkeit in der Bildungs- und Wissensgesellschaft". In: Rolf Becker (Hg.): Lehrbuch der Bildungssoziologie. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, S. 395-432.
• Solga, Heike (2008): "Lack of Training. Employment Opportunities for Low-Skilled Persons from a Sociological and Microeconomic Perspective". In: Karl Ulrich Mayer/Heike Solga (Eds.): Skill Formation. Interdisciplinary and Cross-National Perspectives. Cambridge u.a.: Cambridge University Press, S. 173-204