Labour Market Segmentation, Clusters, Mobility and Unemployment Duration with Individual Microdata

This article proposes empirical tools to account for the role of heterogeneities in the labour matching process, and shows an application to the Andalusian labour market which relies on individual microdata. Firstly, by considering that the labour market is segmented when workers of a specific group have greater probability of matching with specific job groups, we propose two empirical measures related to this idea: propensity to match, and segmentation in worker and job groups. Secondly, we use a clustering methodology, based on a similarity measure, to obtain a better overview of the structure of the labour market. Thirdly, we propose a measure of mobility based on our similarity measure, and estimate a regression model that relates mobility to worker and job characteristics and to the economic cycle. Finally, these tools are included in an unemployment duration model. The proposed methodology may be useful in labour intermediation by helping seekers to follow a ‘roadmap’ of successful paths.