To find out the effect of career mobility on worker’s wages, sociologist Sylvia Fuller of the University of British Columbia looked at data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, following almost 6,000 workers during their first 12 years in the labour market. Fuller and colleagues found that both men and women typically experience considerable mobility during their early careers, although women change employers somewhat less frequently than men. The study also indicated that mobility can be a wage asset when it is concentrated in the early years of employment and not coupled with layoffs, discharges, employment gaps or family-related leave. Fuller also found that high-mobility workers tend to spend a greater proportion of time not employed and, all else being equal, a greater proportion of their job changes are the result of layoffs. Read More