Socio-Economic Characteristics as Determinants in the Job Market : The Case of Piedmont in Italy (1867–2005)

In Modernization Theory, it is argued that both the socio-economic background and education level of labourers affect the job market. In this article, we analyse the effects of both factors on the job market of Piedmont, a region in the north-west of Italy, using a new dataset of job-offer advertisements (job ads) from the newspaper La Stampa between 1867 and 2005. In line with Modernization Theory, we find that the job ads mentioning job-unrelated factors (e.g. ‘family background’) declined over the years. Yet, when present in the job ads, job-unrelated characteristics increased the probability of ending up in jobs with a lower occupational status. Contrary to job-unrelated factors, the frequency of mentions of socio-attitudinal characteristics (e.g. the ‘ability to deal with the public’) increased over time in the job ads while contributing to the probability of ending in jobs with higher occupational status