Employment segmentation and appreciation of education in an anchored production model: Comparative analysis between Spain and Argentina

This article addresses two main issues through a comparative analytical exercise of Spain and Argentina. Firstly, we examine to what extent labour market segmentation processes produce similar dynamics of structuring labour inequalities in both countries and what aspects are specific to a labour reality situated in different cultural, social, economic and historical contexts. In this regard, the general hypothesis establishes that there is no single labour market that adjusts supply and demand but rather diverse segments that structure hierarchical positions in the labour market according to specific labour supply profiles, and that the configuration of the employment segments in Spain and Argentina show a high correspondence. Secondly, given the structure of employment segmentation, we consider to what extent the misnamed ‘occupational overeducation’ of the labour force and the supposed devaluation of educational credentials occur in both countries. Understanding that the phenomenon should be viewed from the demand side and given the anchored and internally differentiated production systems of both countries, this phenomenon, which we prefer to call ‘underoccupation’, is of greater importance in Spain than in Argentina given the country’s educational expansion and hence the greater difficulty to absorb the qualified workforce in the most productive sectors due to the inability of the productive model to create commensurate jobs.