Skill Obsolescence, Lifelong Learning and Labor Market Participation

In this paper, technological and organisational change are analysed in order to discover whether they induce skill obsolescence and early labour market exit, and to what extent formal and informal learning reduce these risks. The authors, using panel data on older workers, found that workers perceive skill obsolescence more often in jobs with a high learning potential, however perceived skill obsolescence has no significant effect on the probability of losing employment because workers in these jobs participate more often in training, which tends to decrease the risk of losing employment. A significant finding is that when workers with long job tenures decrease their training participation it tends to be an early indicator of future job loss.