Collaborative Research: SBP: Socioeconomic Mobility of Young Adults Without College Degrees: Understanding Transition Between Jobs

一份高质量的工作能为年轻人提供更多的收入和职业发展机会，从而为社会经济地位的上升铺平道路。不幸的是，许多没有高等教育学位的年轻人在低薪工作之间转来转去。该项目研究了对正规教育依赖程度较低的因素，这些因素可能促进或抵消没有高等教育学位的年轻人工作质量的变化。该项目为员工提供了他们在寻找和适应新工作时可以采取的个人行动，以提高工作质量的见解。对于雇主和管理者来说，这个项目阐明了工作任务和工作环境如何促进工人的发展，降低人员流动成本。研究结果进一步为旨在支持青年工人进入高质量工作的项目的设计提供了信息，包括为低收入家庭的青年提供服务的项目。该项目通过开发和测试解释个人因素（例如，社会经济流动性信念）、家庭背景（例如，社会阶层出身）以及工作和非工作环境因素（例如，工作场所实践和政府计划）如何推动工作质量变化的模型来推进知识。项目团队正在与明尼苏达州就业和经济发展部以及新泽西州劳动和劳动力发展部合作，收集数据并分析行政记录。该项目团队正在调查年龄在18-29岁之间、没有高等教育学历、在研究开始时处于失业状态的工人。随着参与者在一年的时间里寻找和适应新工作，正在进行额外的调查。调查答复与行政记录相结合。本项目扩展了对代际内社会经济流动中工作转换过程中行为过程作用的理解。该项目还有助于了解个人行为与家庭、工作组织和政府机构在过渡到成年早期的过程中形成的环境因素之间的相互作用。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A high-quality job paves the way for upward socioeconomic mobility for a young adult by providing more income and career progression opportunities. Unfortunately, many young adults without postsecondary degrees spin their wheels between low-wage jobs. This project examines factors less reliant on formal education that may facilitate or counteract changes in job quality among young adults without postsecondary degrees. This project provides insights to workers about personal actions they can take while searching for and adjusting to new jobs to improve job quality. For employers and managers, this project clarifies how job tasks and the work environment can facilitate worker development and reduce turnover costs. Findings further inform the design of programs aiming to support young workers moving into better-quality jobs, including programs serving youth from low-income families. This project advances knowledge by developing and testing models that explain how individual factors (e.g., socioeconomic mobility beliefs), family background (e.g., social class origin), and work and nonwork environmental factors (e.g., workplace practices and government programs) drive changes in job quality. The project team is collaborating with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development to collect data and analyze administrative records. The project team is surveying workers aged 18-29 without postsecondary degrees and unemployed at the beginning of the study. Additional rounds of surveys are being fielded as participants search for and adjust to new job(s) over the course of one year. Survey responses are being paired with administrative records. This project extends understanding of the role of behavioral processes during job transitions in intra-generational socioeconomic mobility. This project also contributes to knowledge about the interplay between individual agency and contextual factors shaped by family, work organizations, and government agencies during transitions into early adulthood.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.