JOB MATCHING AND JOB COMPETITION - ARE LOWER EDUCATED WORKERS AT THE BACK OF JOB QUEUES

During the cyclical downturn of the 1980s unemployment in the Netherla nds increased substantially, with unemployment rates of lower educated workers increasing more than those of higher educated workers. A poss ible explanation of this phenomenon is job competition between workers with different levels of education. Another explanation of the diverg ing unemployment rates is that employers dismiss replaceable lower edu cated workers before irreplaceable higher educated workers. In this pa per we scrutinize the job competition explanation. Our results show th at there only is job competition between unemployed workers with an ac ademic and a higher vocational education. There is no job competition at lower levels of education.