Work-Hour Instability, Occupational Mobility and Gender

Although more than 20 per cent of the workforce changes their occupation every year, we still do not fully understand the mechanisms behind the observed mobility. This paper focuses on analysing the relationship between work-hour instability and occupational mobility in the US labour market. I use the longitudinal dimension of the Current Population Survey (CPS) to measure individuals' intra-year work-hour variation and analyse their mobility through a balanced occupation panel. Being in the highest quartile of work-hour variation is associated with a higher mobility rate of 0.33% for men and 0.81% for women compared to an average monthly mobility rate of 1.71%. Analysing the predicted marginal effects across different household compositions suggests that the substantial gender gap can be explained by the intra-household specialisation of men and women. The last part of this study shows that only workers with highly volatile work hours sort themselves into more stable occupations.