Half of young people find their first job through family and friends - I plug pure logic or social?
Nearly half of English youth, 47.9%, found their first job through a relative or friend, according to a study by the Labour Force Survey of INE, 2009. The importance of knowing the right person at the right place at the time of finding a job is more than studied and embraced by society. Or at least, as shown by the parents who strive to bring their children to private school since they are small, convinced that the social relationships they twist them placed in an advantageous position in the future. "Like most religious subsidized centers were created with the aim of educating the privileged classes of society, and remain in the same effort, naturally attract the type of families intended that their children access to better positions through social relations, "wrote the experts who wrote the 2008 manifesto for public education Lorenzo Luzuriaga Collective.
And when the importance of these relationships seems to extend throughout the career: a 2009 report of Creade (a company relocation and career guidance Adecco) maintains that 80% of job offers from companies in Spain are not published anywhere, but are filled through " their own ways of recruiting intermediaries (mostly scouts) or references to people you trust, "the statement said Company on the study using data from 3,415 candidates for Creade relocated in 2008 and gotten other products in the exploration department of the company.
Depending on the course and relations of each, probably cross out the outrageous case of pure cronyism or social logic. Many human resource professionals are choosing the latter. So does Nekane Rodriguez, CEO of Creade, which ensures that no more favoritism is a thing of the past. "Nobody plays it. You're not going to recommend a friend to work with you if you're not sure it's good." Of what it continues, especially in the progression professional networking is a concept that has become very famous in the shelter of new technologies and that is to create, fat and caring for a network known for professional purposes that can help you climb up or find better employment opportunities . "This is a mutual enrichment also helps you find those hidden deals," said Rodriguez, adding: "The networking also is essential to ensure that the selection process is right."
José María Peiró, professor at the University of Valencia and president-elect of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP, its English acronym) insists Two different types of social capital: the most immediate, short-range (ie, family, friends, cousins), of a larger scope, known acquaintances, that networking. "The second it does is to endorse a set of values \u200b\u200band qualities of the candidate," he says, and is positive. The first case of pure favoritism of the closest negative effects.
In any event, the mere fact of getting a job through a contact does not mean that is not being sufficiently prepared for him, or even that it has obtained a recommendation or plug, leaving someone in the gutter more prepared. The question is that the overall numbers do not provide much detail.
But the fact is that the importance of contacts, whether the type and condition as they are, seem to weigh more in Spain than in other countries, according to the Household Panel EU survey in several waves between 1994 and 2001, leaving the country with the highest percentage above 40% obtained jobs through personal contacts. We are Greece, Portugal and Luxembourg, which is below 40%. This was revealed last April's work economist at Bocconi University in Milan Michele Pellizzari, which puts on the opposite side to Finland, Holland, Denmark and, although using data from a separate survey, to the U.S., all below 20%.
These data, in any case must be taken with some caution, because international studies are scarce and scattered sources give different results depending on who does the work, ask exactly what is and what is understood personal contacts. In fact, it is not uncommon to find studies that point, raw, half of the work typically found in most countries, through these friendships. However, the English figure that has thrown the INE "seems quite high, judging from international studies that I know. And also I think that is consistent with what we know about the ability of the English economy, "said in an e-mail the professor of economics at Tufts University (USA) Yannis Ioannides.
In fact, in 2001, A study on the placement of graduates in 12 European countries (made by economists José García-Montalvo and Jose Ginés Mora) also placed the English and those who got their first job at a higher rate through family or friends: 27% versus 15% on average.
Many experts talk about the Mediterranean culture, much more collectivist than individualistic. This division was made by the researcher Geert Hofstede on research conducted in the seventies, has Peiró. In one classic study, which had sought the cultural differences through the same company, IBM, based in large part of the world, it became more collectivism as an example of the Mediterranean and Latin American countries (we tend to think in terms of us and be faithful to the group that will protect you), and the United States as an example of individualism.
But not only can talk of cultural factors diffuse. When informal channels to find employment are imposed, Ioannides and Peiró match, is also because something wrong with the formal. A few days ago, highlighted in these pages the significant shortcomings of public employment offices in Spain, according to experts and unions unable to offer solutions to most of the unemployed. "The more developed an economy, are more developed formal channels," the teacher at the American university.
This statement is perfectly consistent numbers of graduate employment observatory youth of the Valencian Institute of Economic Research. According to these data, the figures for placement through family and friends were much more high in Spain, but have been reduced until in 2008 to 37.5% in urban Spain, and 43.87% in non-urban. The upturn in 2009 that shows the INE data may be due to the economic crisis.
A crisis has not only elevated the hidden market offer of employment from 60% to 80%, according Nekane Rodriguez, but it gives more value to these guarantees of acquaintances and friends in a context in which employment demand impossible demands on the supply side, Peiró explains. This professor also stresses the difference between access to first job (which probably works more that social capital near family) of professional progression, but also can go hand in hand with known, you probably have more to do with the skills of each, with these guarantees to certain positive attitudes and skills.
However, if half of the population starts with a certain advantage in that first job, do not represent that kind of social injustice? Can not be a very important factor to explain why social mobility in Spain is stagnant since the sixties? The importance of social networks in finding employment is a factor to take into account when analyzing, for example, why "the wage gap between whites and the color is around 25% - 40% in the U.S., while the wage differential between men and women is around 10% -35% in OECD countries. These wage differentials are partly explained by differences in traditional factors such as the quality of education but, nevertheless, there remains a significant residue to explain, "he wrote in a 2006 work economist Antoni Calvo-Armengol .
In another study, just published, sociologist at the University of South Bend (Indiana, USA) Gail M. McGuire says, after analyzing a survey to 5,600 pairs of mates of financial services companies largest U.S. Together, that men benefit more than women in their personal contacts for promotions. The study says these contacts as the real sources of inequality that contribute to that there are few women in managerial positions.
Of course, not everyone sees it the same way. "I do not think all of them [those who come for a job through contacts] enjoy an unfair advantage," says Professor Ioannides, adding: "I can not talk about unfair advantage. I would say it is for the public and private institutions provide different ways of getting jobs. The failure of companies to promote alternative forms of recruitment and strengthens the social benefit family. Everything has to do with the information you trust, if it is in the well known or where the market gives you. Both are important, but the modernization involves giving greater importance to the latter. "
Also, another question is whether the jobs obtained through personal contacts are better or worse than those achieved by other means. Pellizzari secured in Really work and family friends to help get a good job? that the way of contacts means earning less money on average in countries such as Finland, Greece, Portugal and the UK, but implies a higher wage but in Austria, Belgium and Holland.'s explanation Pellizzari is that in recent formal channels of job search are much stronger. In Spain, however, found no significant differences in wages between their jobs found through formal and informal.
Ultimately, pending resolution of the debate of whether fair or unfair, as the crisis passes and see if the economic development fattening formal channels to find employment, what is clear is that whoever has a friend (on the place and right time), is a treasure.
