Measuring labor attachment trajectories in large periods of time

We measure individual employment trajectories along large periods of time using an innovative methodology proposed by Gradín et al. (2012) for the analysis of poverty dynamics. This allows us to construct individual intertemporal employment attachment trajectory indices that can incorporate a preference for short labor detachment durations compared to longer ones and give a positive value to a low level of instability in working hours along the career. Moreover, individual indicators can be aggregated into a global social labor detachment index that allows for straightforward comparisons employment trajectories in different countries or regions and between genders, cohorts or individuals living in diverse demographic and socioeconomic circumstances. The paper contributes to the literature in event history and sequence analysis providing both a synthetic individual measure and a social measure that describes the dynamic nature of labor market attachment. As an empirical illustration we study female versus male employment trajectories by educational level, childbearing age and cohort in a ten-year period using high quality administrative data for Spain.