Diskontinuierliche Erwerbskarrieren und Berufswechsel in den 1990ern : Strukturmuster und biografische Umgangsweisen betrieblich ausgebildeter Fachkräfte (Interrupted employment histories and change of occupation in the 1990s : structural pattern and biographical behaviour of qualified employees trained in companies)

"A widespread thesis assumes that as a consequence of the socio-economic change in industrial societies firstly the 'normal life' centred around gainful employment is disappearing and secondly the occupation is losing its institutional stability and thus its significance for employment and as an orientational quantity in the shaping of biographies. Even if there is agreement that employment is changing its shape, there has not yet been sufficient empirical clarification as to how far these processes of change have progressed or how strongly they are reflected in biographies. The paper deals with these consequences of the change for biographies as well as subjects and organisation methods related to occupational biography. On the basis of a quantitative longitudinal study with a cohort of young skilled employees whose occupational development was followed from completion of training in 1989/90 until approx. eight years later, and taking as an example six of the most common training occupations with different labour market prospects, it is shown that neither interrupted occupational histories nor changes of occupation are exceptional phenomena but that they have become normality. However, discontinuity is not to be equated per se with instability or precariousness, and to a certain extent occupational histories and changes of occupation continue to be influenced by the occupation itself. On the basis of qualitative longitudinal data obtained with a sub-sample of the quantitative panel, discontinuous employment histories and changes of occupation are examined from a subject- related viewpoint. Here it becomes clear firstly that also the different forms of interpretation and structure of discontinuity are related in some cases to the occupation and that for young adults with discontinuous employment histories employment retains a high level of subjective relevance. Secondly it emerges that a change of occupation is in most cases preceded by the creation of a new occupational orientation with the result that a high subjective connective force is attached to the occupation. According to the conclusion, the occupational concept continues to play an important role as an explanatory potential for employment histories, and for young adults in its orientation function." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))