Who Recruits and How ? The Economic Expertise of Youth Integration Professionals

Léa Lima

Laboratoire interdisciplinaire pour la sociologie économique (LISE), UMR 3320 CNAM and CNRS, 2, rue Conté, Case 1LAB40, 75003 Paris, France

Abstract
How do job placement specialists acquire knowledge of the markets, and do they put it to use ? At deliberative committee meetings on the funding of youth integration projects, we observed the construction of a shared representation of the workings of local-level job markets. Transition-to-work professionals develop their economic expertise primarily from two sources to which they are professionally close : the young jobseekers themselves and the vocational training professionals. The unequal distribution of economic expertise is intensified by structural differences in the capacity to put it to use for each of the deliberative stakeholders.
Keywords : Recruitment ; Job market ; Economic beliefs ; Job placement specialist ; Deliberation ; Financial aid.

Article Outline

• 1. The objects of economic expertise
  • 1.1. Recruitment level and average employability assessment
  • 1.2. From the benefits of training to recruitment standards on the markets
• 2. The formation of economic expertise : sensing market signals
  • 2.1. Poorly equipped experts
  • 2.2. Jobseekers as a source of knowledge
  • 2.3. Training provision as a market signal : the prescriber role effect
  • 2.4. Economic information at the source : employers as first-hand information providers
• 3. Unequal possibilities of acquiring and exploiting economic expertise
  • 3.1. Who is the expert ? The distribution of economic expertise between professionals
  • 3.2. Demonstrating economic expertise in the discussions : social relations and interaction framework
• 4. Conclusion
• References
  
  

Sociologie du travail
Volume 57, Supplement 1, November 2015
Translated by John Crisp