Canadian Career Development Foundation

Thoughts on Labour Market Attachment

“Labour Market Attachment” (LMA) is used quite broadly, but is not well defined

It would seem that LMA is a significant input in an “input-process-outcome” model

* All info here is based on Donnalee Bell’s “Labour market attachment: Defining the spectrum between the employed and the inactive”, a 2012 literature review on LMA for CCDF’s Employability Dimensions study.

Background*

What is LMA? What does it mean to adhere, affix or append to

the labour market? Is it like glue – either sticks or doesn’t?

A magnet – can attract with varying strength?

A nut and bolt that, once connected in some way, just needs to be tightened up?

A relationship, full of human foibles?

Key Questions (cont’d)

Do clients entering career and employment services with low LMA fare worse than those with high LMA?

Key Questions (cont’d)

Canada◦ LMA means “working or providing services in the

labour market for remuneration, on a full-time, part-time, seasonal or temporary basis, either as an employee or in Self-Employment”

UK◦ LMA is a “concept relating to a person’s proximity

to the labour force. It covers a spectrum from fully attached workers (e.g. those in employment or International Labour Organization’s [ILO’s] unemployment) at the one extreme, to those who do not want a job at the other extreme. The latter group, which includes economically inactive retired people, might be considered completely detached from the labour market”

Definitions

Definitions (cont’d) Spain

◦ LMA is “the change in workers’ labour market state, as established by their situation at predetermined moments of time, which range from unemployment (or inactivity) to employment through a permanent contract”

Each definition is based on ILO definitions of employment◦ ILO’s approach to the labour force:

The labour force is made up of the employed and the unemployed (want a job, looking for a job, ready to start); everyone else is economically inactive or unattached

There is a spectrum of attachment Within this spectrum, the underemployed

need to be included Specific social groups may be differentially

attached

Key Elements

Employed UPW: Under-employed part-time workers Unemployed PSIA: Persons seeking but not immediately

available PAWNS: Persons available but not seeking Inactive

Fast Forward: de la Fuente’s 6-Point Scale

LMA approaches look at a snapshot of surface status vis-à-vis the labour market (e.g., “unemployed and looking”), but this tells us little about actual attachment – its nature, depth or strength

Imagine studying “relationship attachment” and measuring only: Not dating; not looking Not dating; will be soon Not dating; looking Dating; looking Dating; not looking

Key Problem

Labour Market Status E.g., de la Fuente’s 6-point scale

Socio-Economic Factors E.g., education, literacy, family care responsibility,

external supports, housing, criminal record Non-Cognitive or Personal Attribute Factors

E.g., motivation, goal orientation, self-efficacy, locus of control, perseverance, self-regulation

LMA Factors

How useful is the idea of LMA?◦ Even if we could measure it with an LMAI, would

we? ◦ What difference would it make to our practice?

If useful, how should it be defined? How does the “status – SES – attribute”

combination add to our understanding of LMA?◦ Or, is this broader approach simply a measure of

“work salience”?◦ Or, are SES and Attributes simply predictors of

LMA rather than components of LMA?

To Ponder…