Background: Declining response rates pose a serious threat to the validity of estimates derived from epidemiological studies. If respondents and non-respondents differ systematically from each other, ...there can be a bias in the results of the study. A population-based cohort study was conducted to investigate disparities in socioeconomic structure between respondents and non-respondents and the contribution of these disparities to socioeconomic differences in total and cardiovascular mortality. Design: Data comprised 32 354 male and female participants and 4890 non-participants aged 35–74 years who belonged to the sample in one of the five FINRISK surveys in 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987 or 1992 in Finland. They were followed up for 9 years and 6 months. Results: It was found that the lower socioeconomic groups were over-represented among non-respondents both in men and women. When comparing the relative risk of death using the highest socioeconomic group of the participants as the reference group, it was found that although the socioeconomic gradient was similar for participants and non-participants—that is, lower groups had a higher risk of death—the risk was at a higher level among non-respondents. Conclusions: Basing analysis on participants does not distort the relative risk of death associated with socioeconomic position. However, it does underestimate the absolute risk.
This article examines the use of migration law and policy to address the labour needs of the care sector in two jurisdictions. New Zealand uses an Essential Skills visa to allow the direct entry of ...care workers on a temporary basis while Australia relies on a range of overseas born entrants including international students and working holiday makers, to meet labour supply challenges in the care sector and to supplement the local workforce, which includes many long-term permanent migrants. Changes to the work rights of working holiday makers, together with the introduction of a Designated Area Migration Agreement for Northern Australia and a Pacific Labour Scheme have created new opportunities for temporary entrants to work in care occupations but there is pressure on the Australian Government to open a dedicated temporary labour migration pathway for care workers. New Zealand's revolving door of temporary migrant care workers and Australia's de facto low skilled migration pathway both present regulatory challenges with regard to the protection of these workers in the labour market, their claims to citizenship and their opportunity to realise the 'triple win' promised in the temporary labour migration literature. The increasing reliance by Australia and New Zealand on temporary migrant care workers to meet the labour supply challenges in the sector also masks a range of other endemic employment relations problems in the sector (in particular, low pay) and May lead to a permanent demand for temporary migrant workers at the expense of local care workers.
This article examines the use of migration law and policy to address the labour needs of the care sector in two jurisdictions. New Zealand uses an Essential Skills visa to allow the direct entry of ...care workers on a temporary basis while Australia relies on a range of overseas born entrants including international students and working holiday makers, to meet labour supply challenges in the care sector and to supplement the local workforce, which includes many long-term permanent migrants. Changes to the work rights of working holiday makers, together with the introduction of a Designated Area Migration Agreement for Northern Australia and a Pacific Labour Scheme have created new opportunities for temporary entrants to work in care occupations but there is pressure on the Australian Government to open a dedicated temporary labour migration pathway for care workers. New Zealand's revolving door of temporary migrant care workers and Australia's de facto low skilled migration pathway both present regulatory challenges with regard to the protection of these workers in the labour market, their claims to citizenship and their opportunity to realise the 'triple win' promised in the temporary labour migration literature. The increasing reliance by Australia and New Zealand on temporary migrant care workers to meet the labour supply challenges in the sector also masks a range of other endemic employment relations problems in the sector (in particular, low pay) and May lead to a permanent demand for temporary migrant workers at the expense of local care workers.
This article examines the use of migration law and policy to address the labour needs of the care sector in two jurisdictions. New Zealand uses an Essential Skills visa to allow the direct entry of ...care workers on a temporary basis while Australia relies on a range of overseas born entrants including international students and working holiday makers, to meet labour supply challenges in the care sector and to supplement the local workforce, which includes many long-term permanent migrants. Changes to the work rights of working holiday makers, together with the introduction of a Designated Area Migration Agreement for Northern Australia and a Pacific Labour Scheme have created new opportunities for temporary entrants to work in care occupations but there is pressure on the Australian Government to open a dedicated temporary labour migration pathway for care workers. New Zealand's revolving door of temporary migrant care workers and Australia's de facto low skilled migration pathway both present regulatory challenges with regard to the protection of these workers in the labour market, their claims to citizenship and their opportunity to realise the 'triple win' promised in the temporary labour migration literature. The increasing reliance by Australia and New Zealand on temporary migrant care workers to meet the labour supply challenges in the sector also masks a range of other endemic employment relations problems in the sector (in particular, low pay) and May lead to a permanent demand for temporary migrant workers at the expense of local care workers.
Based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study, this article analyses the effects of workplace training in Germany on subjective job security. Using fixed-effects models, this article tests ...whether workplace training has positive effects on perceived job security, and if so, whether the returns are of a short- or long-term nature. The results confirm a positive effect of workplace training on perceived job security, not only in the short term but in the long term as well. The inclusion of interaction terms for different levels of education shows that low-educated individuals benefit most from participation in workplace training. The immediate effect on subjective job security is strongest, and the post-training effect is most sustained for this group compared to those with higher levels of education. Lower-educated employees often lack access to workplace training, however. The authors conclude that workplace training has the potential to be a mutually beneficial investment for both employers and employees. More targeted policy incentives should aim at enhancing access to workplace training, most importantly for the loweducated, as for them training might be an effective means for improved employment prospects.
This paper aims to compare the performance of area-based vs individual-level measures of socioeconomic status (SES). Using data from the longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), a ...multidimensional measure of individual SES is created. This individual measure is used to benchmark the relative usefulness of socio-economic indexes for areas (SEIFA), a geographic set of measures often used in Australia to assess the SES of individuals. Both measures are compared in terms of classification bias. The effects of using the different SES measures on participation in postcompulsory education are examined. SEIFA measures perform satisfactorily with regard to the aggregate measurement of SES. However, they perform poorly when their use is aimed at channelling resources toward disadvantaged individuals. It is at the individual level that the analysis reveals the shortcomings of area-based SES measures. While region-based measures are relatively easy to collect and utilise, the authors suggest that they hide significant SES heterogeneity within regional districts. Hence, the misclassification resulting from the use of regional measures to direct support for low SES groups creates a risk for resource misallocations. The finding that region-based measures are subject to significant misclassification has important research and policy implications. Given the increasing availability of individual-level administrative data, the paper suggests that such data be used as a substitute for geographic SES measures in categorising the SES of individuals. Author abstract, ed
Psychosocial characteristics have been linked to coronary heart disease. In the Belgian Job Stress Project (1994–1999), the authors examined the independent role of perceived job stress on the ...short-term incidence of clinical manifest coronary events in a large occupational cohort. A total of 14,337 middle-aged men completed the Job Content Questionnaire to determine the dimensions of the extended job strain model, job demands, decision latitude, and social support. Jobs were categorized into high strain, low strain, active jobs, and passive jobs. During the 3-year follow-up, 87 coronary events were registered. At baseline, 17% of workers experienced high strain. Job demands and decision latitude were not significantly related to the development of coronary heart disease after adjustment for covariates. The 38% risk excess among subjects classified in the high-strain category did not reach statistical significance. However, coronary heart disease incidence was substantially associated with the social support scale independently of other risk factors, with an adjusted hazard ratio of 2.4 (95% confidence interval: 1.4, 4.0) between extreme tertiles. No convincing evidence for an association of job demands, decision latitude, or job strain with the short-term incidence of coronary heart disease was found. However, our study underscores the importance of a supportive social work environment in the prevention of coronary heart disease.
本文主要回應武雅士（Arthur P. ...Wolf）教授，對於臺灣歷史人口學研究缺乏「經濟變項」做為分析依據的待努力項目，因而進行「福爾摩沙歷史職業與社會分層資料庫」的建置，並以武雅士長期研究的婚姻類型做一結合分析：探討閩客通婚型態中，客家婦女的家戶經濟型態、婚姻類型與閩南夫婿原居所的分布。「福爾摩沙歷史職業與社會分層資料庫」將臺灣的歷史職業項目與國際標準職業分類做結合，希望有助於歐亞歷史人口的比較研究。本文以臺北（淡水、大稻埕、艋舺）與新竹（竹北、峨眉、北埔）做為研究分析點，藉由研究點內閩客的族群比例、閩客通婚的婚姻類型、第一次婚的平均年齡與家戶社經地位等變項分析，研究結果顯示區域內的族群比例並未真正影響通婚的決定，家庭需求才是造成客家女性與閩南男性結親的主要因素，其中家庭需求包括勞動力需求與家戶世系延續等兩大因素。當我們以客家女性為主題，觀察通婚現象時，發現不論農村地區或城市地區，其通婚類型並無明顯偏好。
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