When Skills are Specific: Labor Market Entry and Occupational Mismatch for Apprenticeship Graduates by Dita Eckardt

Join us for the latest Applied Economics Research Seminar Series event, Summer Term 2026.

Dita Eckardt, from the University of Warwick, will present this week's seminar on When Skills are Specific: Labor Market Entry and Occupational Mismatch for Apprenticeship Graduates.

Abstract

Using administrative data on the largest group of labor market entrants in Germany - graduates from an apprenticeship in a specific occupation - this paper studies the effect of entry conditions on occupational mismatch. I find that higher entry unemployment leads to persistent earnings losses that are driven by full-time wage effects. At the same time, occupational matching, as measured by work in the training occupation or the task similarity between training and occupation, persistently falls. Occupational mismatch accounts for around 20% of the estimated wage effects. A conceptual framework sheds light on underlying mechanisms and shows that lower levels of matching can arise from adverse general or occupation-specific shocks. The framework entails empirical predictions that I test using novel data on occupation-specific unemployment. The findings highlight that the high-quality provision of specific skills can protect apprenticeship graduates from unemployment due to adverse entry conditions, but may expose them to occupational mismatch that can entail long-term productivity effects.

The seminar will begin with a presentation and will end with a Q and A session.

It will be held in the Economics Common Room at 2pm on Thursday, 30 April 2026. This event is open to all levels of study and is also open to the public. To register your place and gain access to the webinar, please contact the seminar organisers.

This event is part of the Applied Economics Research Seminar Series.