Job Matching in the UK and Europe

This study was commissioned by the Sector Skills Development Agency to help inform the evidence base on which its policies and activities are based. It sought to explore how well the skills of workers meet the demands of their jobs in UK and Europe, and what factors lie behind this.

This study examined the job matching issue from two perspectives. The first was the viewpoint of employees, derived from the European Working Conditions Survey, conducted in 1996 and 2000. Second, and drawing on the authors' empirical findings, the study involved qualitative research in four organisations in the UK which employed some of the workers identified as most likely to experience job-skills mismatches to explore in finer detail why, and how, this occurs.