Job Mobility and Career Processes

Renewed interest in the movement of people between jobs highlights the roles of time and opportunity structures in career development. Vacancy-driven models provide the background for many conceptions of the opportunity structure, with recent work on labor markets and economic segmentation contributing characterization of particular structures. Individuals' job-relevant resources, constraints, and contacts interact with structural characteristics to create careers. Careers take place over time, but different aspects of time (e.g. time in the firm versus time in the labor force) have different implications for mobility. Future work in this area needs to develop better understanding of the mechanisms by which job mobility occurs and leads to different kinds of careers.