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Mismatching and job tasks in Germany — rising over-qualification through polarization?

Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training volume 3, pages 39–53 (2011)Cite this article

Abstract

The paper looks for evidence on whether there is a rise in over-qualification caused by changing skill demand, i.e. a decline of middling jobs, in Germany. We use the BIBB/IAB and BIBB/BAuA Employment Surveys 1979, 1985/86, 1991/92, 1998/1999 and 2005/2006 to compute measures of person-to-job matching. Firstly, we explore their trends over time. Secondly, we analyze whether trends in over-qualification are related to changes in workers’ job tasks. The paper thus contributes to the literature by providing in-depth figures on the incidence of qualification- and skill-based mismatching in Germany within the last three decades. Secondly, we add to the literature by linking the «task-based approach» to the debate on mismatching in Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Economics of Vocational Education and Training, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Robert-Schuman-Platz 3, D-53175, Bonn, Germany

    Daniela Rohrbach-Schmidt & Michael Tiemann

Authors
  1. Daniela Rohrbach-Schmidt
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  2. Michael Tiemann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Tiemann.

Additional information

This research is part of the BIBB project «Skill demand change» in the research infrastructure stream «BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey at the Federal Institute of Vocational Education and Training. We thank participants of the BIBB/IAB-Task-Workshop 2010 in Nuremberg and two anonymous reviewers for excellent suggestions.

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Rohrbach-Schmidt, D., Tiemann, M. Mismatching and job tasks in Germany — rising over-qualification through polarization?. Empirical Res Voc Ed Train 3, 39–53 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03546497

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