Wage and employment dynamics : The role of occupational skills ∗

We develop and estimate a simple search and matching model of the Swiss labor market for workers who graduated from vocational education and training (VET) programs. While the skill bundle acquired in a VET program is occupation-specific, single skills that are part of the training can be transferred to other occupations. Combining detailed data on skills acquired in VET programs with the Swiss labor force survey, we examine how interpersonal, manual and cognitive skills map into job offers, unemployment and wages. Assuming that the match productivity exhibits worker-job complementarity, we estimate the demand for interpersonal, manual and cognitive skills and other parameters. Our findings suggest that the demand for interpersonal skills exceeds the demand for other skills, whereas workers acquire more cognitive than interpersonal and manual skills.