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'Bad' jobs damage prospects

12 Sep 2007

'Bad' jobs damage prospects Low-paying jobs can damage future employment prospects as much as sustained unemployment, new research has suggested.

New graduates often worry that being unemployed for months after university will make them look bad in the eyes of prospective employers.

However, a recent study by Professor Mark Stewart of the University of Warwick found that in this respect, a 'bad' job can be as damaging as none at all.

Professor Stewart found that employees in a low-wage job are 2.7 times as likely to be unemployed a year later as those who were higher paid.

His research also established that being in a period of low-waged employment had almost the same detrimental affect on future employment prospects as a period of actual unemployment.

As reported by Onrec,com, Professor Stewart said: "Low-wage jobs act as the main conduit for repeat unemployment.

"The results in this paper suggest that not all jobs are 'good' jobs, in the sense of improving future prospects - and that low-wage jobs typically do not lead on to better things.

"If unemployed individuals' future employment prospects are to be permanently improved, they need to find jobs where they can augment their skills (for example through training) and move up the pay distribution. Low paid jobs typically do not provide this."

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