Measuring quality of employment: an application for Ecuador in the period from 2007 to 2017

Authors

  • Mercy Orellana B. UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA
  • Carlos Rivera B. UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA
  • Pablo Beltrán R. UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA
  • Diego Ontaneda J. UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA

Keywords:

quality of employment, Ecuador, weightings, Polychoric Principal Components Analysis, economic sectors

Abstract

The document investigates the evolution of the quality of employment in Ecuador in the years 2007-2017. Due to the multidimensional nature of job quality, three types of composite indicators are constructed. First, a composite index is constructed with two types of dimension weights; one that weights each dimension in the same way, and another that gives greater weight to the remuneration dimension. Second, recognizing that each labor market has particularities and that the weighting of the dimensions that represent the quality of employment is not the same for each country, a Polychoric Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is applied. Additionally, the employment quality indicator is calculated for different sectors of economic activity. The results indicate that there is an improvement in the employment quality indicator in 2017 in relation to the level observed in 2007, what mainly responds to the higher levels of job stability and social security coverage that workers experienced during the study period. However, the percentage of people with job insecurity is still quite significant, in the same way that there are marked differences in the level of quality of employment between the different sectors of economic activity considered in the study. The services sectors present the best indicator, while the agriculture, livestock and fishing, and construction sectors register the worst indicator.

Author Biographies

Mercy Orellana B., UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA

Docente Universidad de Cuenca – Ecuador, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Grupo de Investigación en Economía Regional (GIER), Proyecto DIUC. e-mail: mercy.orellana@ucuenca.edu.ec.

Carlos Rivera B., UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA

Docente Universidad de Cuenca – Ecuador, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas. e-mail: carlos.rivera@ucuenca.edu.ec

Pablo Beltrán R., UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA

Docente Universidad de Cuenca – Ecuador, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Grupo de Investigación en Economía Regional (GIER), Proyecto DIUC. e-mail: pablo.beltran@ucuenca.edu.ec.

Diego Ontaneda J., UNIVERSIDAD DE CUENCA

Investigador de la Universidad de Cuenca, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Grupo de Investigación en Economía Regional (GIER). e-mail: diego.ontanedaj@ucuenca.edu.ec.

Published

2020-06-18

Issue

Section

Science article