Suchergebnisse

Previous research has shown that an advantaged social class position protects individuals from unemployment, but less is known about how this relationship has developed after the turn of the millennium, how it varies by gender and to what extent education contributes to the association between these factors. We assess these questions using register-based data on the Finnish labour force over a 28-year period between 1988 and 2015. The overall risk of unemployment was 2.7–3.7-fold among manual classes compared to upper non-manual classes, and 1.4–1.7-fold among lower compared to upper non-manual classes. Controlling for education attenuated the differences between social classes by about two-thirds. Social class disparities were somewhat more distinct among men than among women, but gender differences narrowed over time. Overall, temporal changes were small, especially among men, except for a curvilinear pattern observed for the relative unemployment risk of the lower non-manual class. To conclude, despite a comparatively egalitarian context and drastic changes in economic conditions and labour market structures over time, social stratification in unemployment has been substantial and considerably persistent. This is in line with the conceptualization of social class underpinning differing employment relations and, therefore, inherently creating variation in labour market risks.

Previous research has shown that an advantaged social class position protects individuals from unemployment, but less is known about how this relationship has developed after the turn of the millennium, how it varies by gender and to what extent education contributes to the association between these factors. We assess these questions using register-based data on the Finnish labour force over a 28-year period between 1988 and 2015. The overall risk of unemployment was 2.7–3.7-fold among manual classes compared to upper non-manual classes, and 1.4–1.7-fold among lower compared to upper non-manual classes. Controlling for education attenuated the differences between social classes by about two-thirds. Social class disparities were somewhat more distinct among men than among women, but gender differences narrowed over time. Overall, temporal changes were small, especially among men, except for a curvilinear pattern observed for the relative unemployment risk of the lower non-manual class. To conclude, despite a comparatively egalitarian context and drastic changes in economic conditions and labour market structures over time, social stratification in unemployment has been substantial and considerably persistent. This is in line with the conceptualization of social class underpinning differing employment relations and, therefore, inherently creating variation in labour market risks.

Despite decades of research on the association between socio-economic status (SES) and crime, its strength and nature remain contested. Using a unique dataset combining data from several administrative registers with a nationally representative sample of 28,485 19 to 30-year-old Finnish citizens, we examine SES differences in violent offences, property offences and driving while intoxicated. We use multiple measures of SES in order to see what it is in SES that increases crime risk. We also test the strain accumulation hypothesis to find out whether presence of multiple strains increases crime risk disproportionately. The results indicate that, in addition to male gender, SES is strongly associated with all three types of crime, and the predictors are largely similar for all the offence types in question. Long-term unemployment and having only a basic education, in particular, were the most robust predictors of offending. These associations held after controlling for previous criminal involvement as well as other social characteristics, whereas the effect of low income on crime was primarily attributable to prior involvement in crime. Overall, the results imply that there are both causation and selection mechanisms at play. No interactive effect was found for strain accumulation.

Abstract.  We examine the association of four socioeconomic factors with turnout in Finland in three age groups. The analyses are based on individual‐level register data from electoral wards from the parliamentary elections of 1999 linked to population registration data on personal characteristics covering the whole 25 to 69 year‐old Finnish electorate. The results show that income and housing tenure are more important determinants of turnout among older voters than among younger voters, whereas education has a dominant role in determining young people's turnout. Moreover, class has maintained its discriminatory power in determining turnout in all age groups even though working‐class under‐representation in participation can be partly attributable to previously obtained educational attainment. Furthermore, the lower turnout of younger voters remains unexplained even if socioeconomic factors are held constant. Lower turnout among lower social classes and among the young will affect the legitimacy of the prevalent model of party democracy.

Major social changes such as occupational restructuring, educational expansion and increasing income inequality are likely to significantly influence the intergenerational transmission of income. The aim in this article is to investigate this question in an analysis of the transmission of low and high income in Finland in five birth cohorts born between 1956 and 1978. The focus is on the contribution of parental social class and personal educational level to this association. The analyses are based on a longitudinal register-based data set that is a representative 11-per-cent sample of the Finnish population. The level of intergenerational income transmission among those with a low- and a high-income parental background is stable among men, and is increasing slightly among women. Simultaneously, the role of achieved education as a mechanism strengthens slightly upon entry to the lowest income level, and declines upon entry to the highest level. These results indicate that despite the increasing income inequality, intergenerational transmission remains rather stable, but the mediating role of educational qualifications may have changed. Occupational restructuring seems to have no clear influence on the process.

La santé des immigrés dépend de facteurs liés à la fois à leur lieu d'origine et de destination. Les immigrés finlandais de sexe masculin vivant en Suède ont des taux de mortalité compris entre ceux des populations finlandaise et suédoise. Les femmes immigrées, en revanche, affichent une mortalité légèrement supérieure à ces deux populations. Cependant, leurs taux de mortalité liés à l'alcool et au tabac sont situés entre ceux des Finlandaises et des Suédoises. Dans l'ensemble, les comportements des populations migrantes en matière de santé sont influencés, positivement ou négativement, par les conditions sociales des pays d'origine et de destination.

Differences in mortality by socio-economic position (SEP) are well established, but there is uncertainty as to which dimension of SEP is most important in what context. This study compares the relationship between three SEP dimensions and mortality in Finland, during the periods 1990–97 and 2000–07, and to existing results for Sweden. We use an 11% random sample from the Finnish population with information on education, occupational class, individual income and mortality (age groups 35–59 and 60–84) (n = 810,902; 274,316 deaths). Cox proportional hazard models produce hazard ratios (HR) for categories of SEP variables in bivariate and multivariate models. Multivariate HRs are smaller than bivariate HRs, but all dimensions have a net effect on mortality. Overall, income shows the steepest mortality gradient: HR = 2.49 among men in the lowest income quintile aged 35–59 in the 1990s. The importance of the various SEP dimensions is modified by gender and age group, reflecting the significance of gendered life course differences in analyses of health inequality. Except for the declining disadvantage of poor men aged 35–59, inequalities are very stable over time and similar between Finland and Sweden. In such studies, the use of only one SEP indicator functions well as a broad marker of SEP. However, only analyses of multiple dimensions allow for comprehensive measurements of SEP, take into account the fact that some SEP dimensions are mediated by others, and provide insights into the social mechanisms underlying the stable structure of inequalities in mortality.

AbstractSocio-economic circumstances influence later-life employment participation, which may take different forms as retirement processes are complex. We aimed to explore the diverse effects of various socio-economic sub-domains on pre- and post-retirement employment. We used Finnish register data to examine socio-economic predictors of time to retirement (i.e.receiving the statutory pension) using Cox regression analysis and on time spent in post-retirement employment using repeated negative binomial regression analysis over a follow-up between the ages of 63 and 68,i.e.the flexible pension age range. An average wage earner still employed at age 62 spent 13.5 months in pre-retirement employment (this corresponds to time to retirement) and 4.8 months in post-retirement employment. Those with tertiary education retired later, but the educational differences in the total time spent in employment were small when post-retirement employment was also considered. There was little variation in the timing of retirement by household income, but those in the highest quintile spent the longest time in post-retirement employment. Upper non-manual employees, home renters and those with high household debt retired later, and those with high household debt also spent a longer time in post-retirement employment. In a national flexible pension age system, high occupational class and household income thus appear to encourage either later retirement or participation in post-retirement employment. However, economic constraints also appear to necessitate continued employment.