Polarization in the Labour Market or Upgrading? A Review of Explanations of Structural Changes in the Employment and Their Consequences

The submitted paper is a literature review responding to the still existing controversy in the literature regarding the net result of structural changes in employment. These are caused by factors affecting labour demand and supply and can take either the form of polarized employment structure or professional upgrading. The objective of the paper is to explain the impacts of these incentives on individual skill groups of workers. These incentives act in mutual interaction and in a given institutional context. The polarized structure of employment can be rather seen in countries, which intensively trade with newly industrialized countries and invest in them then in countries with a lagging pace of growth in the supply of skilled workers, significant inflow of migrants, and finally, countries with more flexible labour markets.