Project number: K138766

The structure of occupations is continuously changing. Occupational mobility can make a significant contribution to economic growth, it can be one of the keys to efficient resource re-allocation. The lack of it may slow down the flow of labour from declining sectors to growing sectors. Nevertheless, occupational mobility can cause serious losses if there is an outflow of occupations that require a large amount of specialized knowledge in the new occupation where it cannot be used. Technological development robotization, automation, is accelerating and employees have to change jobs more often during their active lifetime. So, occupation mobility is getting increased attention in the international literature, but very little research has been done in Hungary on this topic, and we aim to fill this gap. The proposal summarizes four research tasks that aim at advancing our knowledge on important dimensions of occupation mobility in Hungary in general and occupation and students’ mobility of higher education graduates in particular. After analysing the extent and changes of occupational mobility in international comparison (Task 1) we will focus on three different, but interrelated aspects of mobility: (Task 2) the role of general versus specific skills, (Task 3) the role of the educational system (if the different educational programs provide students with too specific knowledge and educational mobility of students substitutes occupational mobility) and (Task 4) the role of occupational licensing. We will use large, unique individual-level datasets that contain detailed information both for educational and labour market events for the individuals in the sample.