The skill divide in post-unemployment job quality

With increasing demand of high-skilled labor and the educational expansion in many OECD countries, low-skilled workers are increasingly forced into low-skilled, low-paid and insecure jobs. Scholars have pointed to a strong skill divide in job quality. We examined whether unemployment promoted the skill divide in job quality with a variety of post-unemployment job-quality indicators. Using a large German panel survey, we found that high-skilled respondents were more prone to decreased post-unemployment job quality with regard to financial and job security aspects, yet more likely to experience better skill-matches. Further analyses revealed that this finding can be attributed to a considerable post-unemployment downward mobility of the high-skilled respondents. We discuss a possible ‘floor-effect’ for low-skilled workers.