Career mobility in Britain

Abstract

Using new data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) 1991--1995, we document patterns of career mobility and investigate various factors affecting the probabilities of male and female workers' promotions, quits and layoffs. We find that internal promotions account for almost two-fifths of total labour turnover. Gender differences in the incidence of career mobility states are small, although some differences emerge when individual and environmental characteristics are controlled for. Finally, job tenure has some direct effect on the probability of promotion, especially when worker's fixed effects are controlled for. However, the main effect on promotion is through long hours working overtime.