Careers which do not reflect continuous professional development are still perceived as problematic for further success. But white spots on people’s CVs are ever more frequent and always less a sign of professional failure, as reveals a study conducted by the IAB institute. In the course of the study only careers of West German professionals were analyzed.
The following was found out: Those who were born around 1960 were more frequently unemployed and lost their jobs at a younger age than those born in the fifties or sixties. About 60% of men born in 1940 or 1950 were permanently gainfully employed between the ages of 30 and 40. For those men born in 1960 this figure amounts to just 50%. However, the data for those born around 1930 reveal that these men had similarly instable professional careers which, among other things, was a consequence of the economic structural crisis in the 1960s which affected e.g. the mining and building industries.
The figures for women show that these are markedly less often permanently employed over long periods of time than men. Irrespective of their year of birth, less than 40% of women between the ages of 30 and 40 are permanently employed. According to the female authors of the IAB study the reason for this is to be found in the way women do their family planning.
The study is available on the internet. 