IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ucl/cepeow/25-09.html

Who's in the talent pool? Understanding diversity in labour market entrants across England

Author

Listed:
  • Catherine Dilnot

    (Department of Accounting, Oxford Brookes University)

  • Lindsey Macmillan

    (UCL Centre for Education Policy & Equalising Opportunities)

  • Claire Tyler

    (UCL Centre for Education Policy & Equalising Opportunities)

Abstract

Research on intergenerational income mobility has shown that the UK has relatively low mobility compared to other countries and that this is, in part, driven by inequalities in access to elite occupations in the labour market by socio-economic background. Many employers are actively trying to reduce these gaps in access by socio-economic background, as well as by ethnicity and gender, forreasons of efficiency as well as equity. But they lack access to detailed information about the relevant pools of talent from which they are hiring to set informed hiring targets. This study provides such information by describing the talent pool of English domiciled university graduates and school leavers in terms of socio-economic background, ethnicity and gender by university type, subject and outcomes and school prior attainment. Importantly, given the diversity in ethnicity by place in England, it also provides details of talent pools by Travel to Work Area. Large differences in demographic make-up by attainment, institution type, subject and place are found.

Suggested Citation

  • Catherine Dilnot & Lindsey Macmillan & Claire Tyler, 2025. "Who's in the talent pool? Understanding diversity in labour market entrants across England," CEPEO Working Paper Series 25-09, UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, revised Aug 2025.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucl:cepeow:25-09
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec-cepeo.ucl.ac.uk/cepeow/cepeowp25-09.pdf
    File Function: Initial version, 2025
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Miles Corak, 2013. "Income Inequality, Equality of Opportunity, and Intergenerational Mobility," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 27(3), pages 79-102, Summer.
    2. John Jerrim, 2020. "Measuring socio-economic background using administrative data. What is the best proxy available?," DoQSS Working Papers 20-09, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    3. Claire Crawford & Paul Gregg & Lindsey Macmillan & Anna Vignoles & Gill Wyness, 2016. "Higher education, career opportunities, and intergenerational inequality," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 32(4), pages 553-575.
    4. Paul Gregg & Lindsey Macmillan & Claudia Vittori, 2019. "Intergenerational income mobility: access to top jobs, the low-pay no-pay cycle and the role of education in a common framework," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 501-528, April.
    5. Haroon Chowdry & Claire Crawford & Lorraine Dearden & Alissa Goodman & Anna Vignoles, 2013. "Widening participation in higher education: analysis using linked administrative data," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 176(2), pages 431-457, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Delaney, Judith M. & Devereux, Paul J., 2020. "Choosing differently? College application behavior and the persistence of educational advantage," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    2. Edward M. Sosu & Lauren N. Smith & Ninetta Santoro & Stephanie McKendry, 2018. "Addressing socioeconomic inequality in access to university education: an analysis of synergies and tensions in Scottish policy," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Hassani-Nezhad, Lena & Anderberg, Dan & Chevalier, Arnaud & Lührmann, Melanie & Pavan, Ronni, 2021. "Higher education financing and the educational aspirations of teenagers and their parents," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Sarah Hudson & Helena V. González-Gómez & Cyrlene Claasen, 2022. "Societal Inequality, Corruption and Relation-Based Inequality in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(3), pages 789-809, December.
    5. Gill Wyness, 2020. "Is higher education still worth the cost?," CEPEO Briefing Note Series 9, UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities, revised Nov 2020.
    6. Nadia Siddiqui & Vikki Boliver & Stephen Gorard, 2019. "Reliability of Longitudinal Social Surveys of Access to Higher Education: The Case of Next Steps in England," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(1), pages 80-89.
    7. Lee Elliot Major & Andrew Eyles & Stephen Machin, 2021. "Unequal learning and labour market losses in the crisis: consequences for social mobility," CEP Discussion Papers dp1748, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. Maragkou, Konstantina, 2020. "Socio-economic inequality and academic match among post-compulsory education participants," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Vincenzo Carrieri & Apostolos Davillas & Andrew M. Jones, 2023. "Equality of opportunity and the expansion of higher education in the UK," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(4), pages 861-885, December.
    10. Bonacini, Luca & Gallo, Giovanni & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2021. "Sometimes you cannot make it on your own. How household background influences chances of success in Italy," GLO Discussion Paper Series 832, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Paul Gregg & Lindsey Macmillan & Claudia Vittori, 2019. "Intergenerational income mobility: access to top jobs, the low-pay no-pay cycle and the role of education in a common framework," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 501-528, April.
    12. Daniela Federici & Valentino Parisi & Francesco Ferrante, 2023. "Aspiration bias and job satisfaction of young Italian graduates," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(2), pages 643-677, July.
    13. Simon Burgess & Claire Crawford & Lindsey Macmillan, 2017. "Assessing the role of grammar schools in promoting social mobility," DoQSS Working Papers 17-09, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    14. Nadia Siddiqui & Vikki Boliver & Stephen Gorard, 2019. "Reliability of Longitudinal Social Surveys of Access to Higher Education: The Case of Next Steps in England," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(1), pages 80-89.
    15. Daniel Reiter & Mario Thomas Palz & Margareta Kreimer, 2020. "Intergenerational transmission of economic success in Austria with a focus on migration and gender," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 54(1), pages 1-20, December.
    16. Michele Bernasconi & Giulio Cinquanta & Valentino Dardanoni & Vincenzo Prete, 2025. "Mobility Comparisons: Theoretical Definitions and People’s Perceptions," Games, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-21, May.
    17. Sven Resnjanskij & Jens Ruhose & Simon Wiederhold & Ludger Wößmann, 2021. "Mentoring verbessert die Arbeitsmarktchancen von stark benachteiligten Jugendlichen," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 74(02), pages 31-38, February.
    18. Fields, Gary S. & Meng, Xin & Song, Yang, 2022. "Earnings mobility during labor market reforms in urban China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    19. Jo Blanden, 2019. "Intergenerational income persistence," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 176-176, January.
    20. Michele Raitano & Francesco Vona & Claudia Vittori, 2015. "The effect of parental background along the son's earnings distribution : does one model fit for all?," Working Papers hal-03459749, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ucl:cepeow:25-09. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jake Anders (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/epucluk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.