Hvorfor tager fagl?rte ufagl?rt arbejde?

Abstract

In this paper we discuss four possible explanations of why an increasing number of skilled workers in Denmark have unskilled work in a period of economic growth:

• Unemployment within different sectors
• Increasing demands of skills and qualifications
• Gender, time poverty and care-responsibility
• The role of formal work in late modernity

The explanations are seen as important, but not the only possible. Furthermore they are intertwined. It is shown - as the above imply - that unemployment is not the determining explanation, despite traditional claims. The lack of will or ability to meet the increasing demands for skills and qualifications, individualised problems of combining work and family life, gendered care responsibilities, and the changing role of formal work as the primary core of the life course are equally important.