Job Quality in France: Mapping and Classification of Low-Skilled Occupations

Based on the Working Conditions Survey (2013), this article aims to construct a typology of occupations with a ‘worker’ or ‘employee’ status based on their level and type of job quality. This approach to job quality by occupation appears to be important for three complementary reasons: first, because the nature of the occupation, beyond the characteristics of the individuals who do the jobs, explain differences in terms of job quality: second, because of the importance of the nature of occupations in terms of the rules governing work; and finally, because of the role played by public policies in supporting quality in many occupations.

As a first step, we develop a set of 15 indicators measuring the different dimensions of job quality by combining variables relating to the wage relationship (in particular remuneration), non-material interest in exercising a profession (such as degree of autonomy or social relations), or working conditions (in particular the constraints related to work or difficulties experiences by employees, such as physical difficulties).

As a second step, based on these 15 indicators, we construct a hierarchical ascending classification that reveals eight occupational classes. The fracture lines that oppose them then make it possible to establish a partial hierarchy of occupations in terms of job quality.

Finally, we specify the compositions of these classes (relevant occupations and socio-demographic characteristics of individuals) and highlight the concentration of some types of workers in good or poor quality occupations.