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Open research questions in Labor market dynamics and wage inequality

161 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 8,137 Labor market dynamics and wage inequality papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • • Career prospects • Job security Job offers good prospects for career advancement Might lose job in the next six months If were to lose job, it would be easy to find a job of similar salary Own elaboration, based on Eurofound (2017) Cronbach’s alpha 2010: 0.831 2015: 0.805 2010: 0.691 2015: 0.700 2010: 0.717 2015: 0.720 2010: 0.538 2015: 0.559 2010: 0.788 2015: 0.787 2010: 0.295 2015: 0.224 S. M. Leitner, R.

    Offshoring to different destination regions and working conditions in Europe · 2026 · DOI

  • Over more than three decades, the IAB Establishment Panel has become a core data source for analysing labour demand in Germany, combining broad coverage of estab- lishments with a comprehensive questionnaire and sta- ble panel. A central lesson is the constant balancing act between continuity and change. The survey preserves a comparable core (annual and biennial modules) to enable long-run analyses, while selectively refreshing content mostly through ad-hoc topical blocks (e.g., minimum wage, working from home, Ukraine war, green transition) to cover emerging topic. Change also affects the survey methods, the Establishment Panel successfully transi- tioned from a paper-based survey to computer-assisted modes–a process initiated by own initiative, but acceler- ated by the circumstances. The most pressing challenge for the coming years is likely establishments’ declining willingness to participate. While recruiting new establishments has become more difficult, the high retention of existing panel members ensures that the IAB Establishment Panel makes possible longitudinal analysis. Sustained investment in respon- dent experience, limiting the response burden, and ongo- ing evaluations of mode effects will be crucial to stabilise participation.

    The IAB establishment panel – an updated overview · 2026 · DOI

  • The present study has several limitations related to the methodology used and, above all, to the data, which should be addressed to better understand the results and to highlight possible causes. However, apart from these limitations, the results of the present work are quite consistent with previous research on this topic conducted with Serbian data. They are listed below, but not necessarily in order of their importance. One limitation of this paper is that it uses a pooled sample of respondents. The main reasons for this are the short time dimension, covering only two years (2019 and 2020), and the constraint on data availability for monthly wages and hours worked, which prevented the direct calculation of net wages per hour (which were transformed using logarithms). Certainly, the longitudinal dimension of the data would allow the inclusion of information on unobserved effects in the analysis of wage differentials. However, in this paper, variables are derived to indicate the frequency of an employed person's appearance in the survey. These variables are included in the inefficiency part of the wage model. One of the limitations of this paper is the lack of responses, especially for categorical variables, which certainly affected the reduction in the number of units in the sample (5,507 and 101 for full-time and part-time employees, respectively), although the initial filtering of sample units included the non-negative values for wages and hours worked. In addition, the number of explanatory variables differs between the two models estimated for full-time and part-time employment, which could also be seen as a limitation of the current study. For example, the occupational structure variable is excluded from the wage model for part-time employees, as are dummies representing the size of the enterprise in which a part-time employee works. The fact that a comparison with other European countries, analysing the gender pay gap based on the Structure of Earnings Survey over a long period of time, is not possible is also a limitation of the present study, as this survey has been conducted only a few times in Serbia. However, all these limitations were highlighted in the paper and can serve as a guideline for further studies on the pay gap. Of course, the analysed wage models for both full-time and part-time employees include all relevant variables from the data set used in the analysis and are supported by theoretical and empirical foundations from similar studies conducted in other countries or groups of countries, which are highly cited in this paper.

    The Gender Pay Gap among Full-Time and Part-Time Workers in Serbia: Experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic · 2026 · DOI

  • The Lightcast job posting data used in this article provide valuable insights into the skill content of jobs. However, it is important to note that these data were not initially developed for research purposes and have several limitations. First, the data indicate whether a particular skill is required for a job, but do not provide information on the level of skill intensity or ability required. This implies that we consider skills in a binary way, ignoring the fact that jobs with similar skill requirements may necessitate varying levels of proficiency. We measure skills at such a granular level that we do not expect this to introduce substantial bias, but we cannot rule out the possibility that we are underestimating both the heterogeneity sociological science | www.sociologicalscience.com 391 April 2026 | Volume 13 Labussière and Bol Identifying Latent Skill Profiles in the Labor Market in skill content within occupational categories and the explanatory power of skill profiles. Second, our data capture only the demand side of the labor market. We measure the skill content of jobs as it is described by employers, which may not correspond to what jobs may require in practice and may be even further removed from what workers actually do on the job. More generally, we have largely taken skills for granted, as if they were objectively and unambiguously defined in relation to the task content of jobs. Yet, this neglects the role of institutions in shaping how employers perceive and use skills to construct a given job, and how workers respond to them in return. Our exploratory approach has shed light on the great heterogeneity of skills within occupational categories but falls short in contextualizing how the skill profiles of jobs are created and socially validated. We see this as a very fruitful avenue for further research, as we might expect the skill content of jobs to vary greatly depending on the institutional context in which they are embedded. For example, the presence of unions, occupational licensing, or gender norms may all affect the definition of skills and their strategic use in the labor market (Bol and Weeden 2015; Martin-Caughey 2021). Third, the wage offered in job postings may differ from the wage paid to incumbents. Our wage equations should therefore be interpreted with caution, as the mechanisms generating wage inequality between jobs may differ from those generating inequality between workers. For a given wage offered, workers have different bargaining power depending on the scarcity and suitability of their skill profiles, among other organizational factors (see, e.g., Sakamoto and Wang 2017). Replicating this study with employee surveys would therefore be worthwhile, provided that they include detailed task data. Moreover, our wage equations are only estimated for a subset of job postings that propose a wage.

    Are Occupations “Bundles of Skills”? Identifying Latent Skill Profiles in the Labor Market Using Topic Modeling · 2026 · DOI

  • The strengths of the QWI address the limitations of other sources of labor market data, including (1) nonstandardized definitions, (2) sampling that is useful for describing local and regional trends, (3) contemporaneous availability, and (4) lack of data for subgroups.

    Leveraging Quarterly Workforce Indicators to Analyze K–12 Education Labor Market Dynamics: Inequitable Trends in Turnover · 2026 · DOI

  • The evidence above suggests that addressing the gaps in adult learning participation and skills development requires a targeted approach that recognises each country’s educational system and labour market contexts. Structural trends such as automation, decarbonisation and digitalisation are likely to affect countries and industries in different ways (Li 2022), partly contingent on Understanding Europe’s skills shortage: Patterns of… 252 S. Pemberton-Frings, S. Ilie the prevalence of industry sectors most at risk from such trends and the skills levels of workers within them. Identifying priority groups for reskilling or upskilling – nationally, regionally and by industry – therefore represents a critical step in aligning education policy with workforce transformation (Ure and Skauge 2019). The identification of priority groups can be informed by data from employee surveys that reflect workers’ perceptions of their ability to meet job demands (e.g., the European Skills and Jobs Survey [ESJS], which measures upskilling needs by industry), employer surveys that assess current and projected skills needs (e.g., Eurofound’s European Company Survey [ECS]) and administrative labour market data (such as the EU Labour Force Survey [EU-LFS] we used for this research, or reports from the Brookings Institution or McKinsey Global Institute, which provide projections) that identify high-level, systemic trends in adult learning participation. Establishing systems to track and project skills mismatches over time would further strengthen the evidence base for intervention (McGuinness et al. 2018). Singapore’s Future Economy Council (FEC), which tracks and projects skills mismatches to ensure readiness for future changes, offers an example of how national-level tracking mechanisms can inform timely and targeted policy interventions.9 At the same time, policymakers need to assess current levels of reskilling and upskilling. While this article documents variation in participation rates, additional research is needed to understand the underlying reasons for underrepresentation among certain groups. Key areas of inquiry include the availability of learning opportunities for certain population groups, the extent to which existing programmes are underutilised, and whether certain groups disproportionately benefit. Each of these issues is considered in detail below. Where learning opportunities are lacking, policymakers may consider a range of incentives to support training provision. For example, countries may expand on the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (EP and CoEU 2022), which requires large companies to disclose their contributions to employee training.

    Understanding Europe’s skills shortage: Patterns of participation in formal and non-formal education and training · 2026 · DOI

  • Self-employment hours, as measured using the Current Population Survey (CPS), occasionally vary widely from one quarter to the next, and these variations can result in large fluctuations in measures of quarterly labor productivity produced by the U.

    Why are Measures of Aggregate Hours Worked by the Unincorporated Self-Employed So Volatile? · 2025 · DOI

  • Within complementary skill clusters, the results are mixed: demand for machine learning programming grew by 24%, and demand for AI-powered chatbot development nearly tripled, while demand for novice workers declined in general.

    Winners and losers of generative AI: Early Evidence of Shifts in Freelancer Demand · 2025 · DOI

  • However, the paradigm needs to shift as “invest in human capital”, which implicitly focuses on the acquisition of valued skills, has mostly been treated as equivalent of “spend on school” and this conceptual elision has produced very mixed results on learning and the creation of cognitive skills, which were, and are, taken to be an important goal of schooling.

    Investing in Human Capital in Africa: A framework for research · 2024 · DOI

  • Findings from the study allow comparison of Turkey and southern European welfare regime countries and fill the gap in the literature on NEET and parent relationship in Turkey with a strong and up-to-date dataset.

    NEET in Turkey: a typology including jobless youths, parental education and employment status as determinants · 2023 · DOI

  • First, the authors discuss current microdata and NEET determinants in Turkey, which is the subject of limited research and has one of the highest rates of NEET in the 15–29-years age category (28.

    NEET in Turkey: a typology including jobless youths, parental education and employment status as determinants · 2023 · DOI

  • Abstract Despite the ongoing debate about how much academic versus vocational upper-secondary education is favorable for a country and large differences across countries of those two types of education exist, the interplay of vocational and academic education on upper-secondary level and its consequences for the entire education system remain under-researched.

    Brain drain from vocational to academic education at upper-secondary level? An empirical analysis for Switzerland · 2020 · DOI

  • This study analyses and compares long-term employment patterns during young adulthood (defined as ages 25 to 39) among two cohorts of women born around 1958 (N = 2,244) and 1969 (N = 2,231) in Chile, an under-studied country in life-course research.

    How have women’s employment patterns during young adulthood changed in Chile? A cohort study · 2019 · DOI

  • As this paper is the first to provide impact estimates over a 9-year period of the TUP program, the findings highlight the need for further research on the causes for this reversal and the extent to which it is found in other settings.

    How Far Does a Big Push Really Push? Long-Term Effects of an Asset Transfer Program on Employment Trajectories · 2018 · DOI

  • This paper surveys the full range of experimental literature on labor market discrimination, places it in the context of the broader research literature on labor market discrimination, discusses the experimental literature from many different perspectives (empirical, theoretical, and policy), and reviews both what this literature has taught us thus far, and what remains to be done.

    Experimental Research on Labor Market Discrimination · 2018 · DOI

  • Recent research has begun to focus on the effectiveness of the EITC during a time when jobs are scarce; however, due to data limitations, the mechanism of EITC eligibility loss has not been addressed.

    THE EITC OVER THE GREAT RECESSION · 2017 · DOI

  • This article addresses this gap in the literature and investigates the relationships among employment in high-tech industries, poverty, and the labor market for non-degree-educated workers using a panel of 295 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States between 2005 and 2011.

    Is There Trickle-Down from Tech? Poverty, Employment, and the High-Technology Multiplier in U.S. Cities · 2016 · DOI

  • There were several important changes in sampling and fieldworker practice that accompanied the introduction of the master sample of Enumeration Areas, which have not been systematically documented and which make comparability of the surveys undertaken by Statistics South Africa before and after this time difficult.

    Sampling methodology and fieldwork changes in the October Household Surveys and Labour Force Surveys · 2015 · DOI

  • ECONOMIC THEORY IS INCONCLUSIVE Critics of employment protective legislation often rely on the neoclassical argument that these legal rules distort employers' decisions and interfere with labor market efficiency.

    Employment Regulation and Youth Employment: A Critical Perspective · 2015

  • The evaluation of the Catalan PQPIs (initial vocational qualification programmes) presented here seeks to provide new evidence on the effectiveness of ALMPs for a social, economic and geographical context – the south of Europe – in which such evaluations are scarce but particularly necessary, given current unemployment conditions.

    The impact of training-intensive labour market policies on labour and educational prospects of NEETs: evidence from Catalonia (Spain) · 2015 · DOI

  • However, the impact of FDI on inequality not only remains controversial, but has not received the same attention, particularly from scholars of transition economies (Vijaya and Kaltani 2007; Zulfiu-Alili 2014).

    Inward Foreign Direct Investment and Wage Inequality in Macedonia · 2014 · DOI

  • The amount of time students spend getting their qualification varies widely across OECD countries but more time spent in education does not produce a better-qualified workforce.

    How Can Countries Best Produce a Highly-qualified Young Labour Force? · 2013 · DOI

  • This paper aims to present data on an understudied aspect of WISEs: the labor market niches where they are active, the occupations associated with these labor market positions, and the work conditions offered through their WISE businesses.

    Examining the labor market presence of US WISEs · 2013 · DOI

  • This paper shows that a fair-wage model with inertia in fairness perceptions provides a plausible explanation for the observed negative correlation between changes in productivity growth and equilibrium unemployment over the medium run, a stylized fact that remains elusive to most other classes of models.

    A fair wage model of unemployment with inertia in fairness perceptions · 2012 · DOI

  • Depending upon specification, the estimated wage elasticity with respect to training is in the range of 3-7%, whereas the performance effects vary widely depending on the measures of training intensity.

    The effects of general and firm-specific training on wages and performance: evidence from banking · 2011 · DOI

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161 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 8,137 Labor market dynamics and wage inequality papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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