Matching and Mismatching of Green Jobs: A Big Data Analysis of Job Recruiting and Searching
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
I find your paper interesting, but this is a professional paper that lacks a solid scientific contribution. Furthermore, some parts of the paper are interesting only to readers from Korea as for example other readers are not familiar with the regions in Korea and the meaning for this research.
Mentioning COVID-19 in the context of green jobs is not really necessary.
Prior to resubmitting the paper elsewhere, I advise you to improve your theoretical background about green jobs and to find research gaps and your unique contribution. Current descriptive analysis does not provide scientific contribution.
Reviewer
Author Response
REVIEWER 1:
Dear authors,
I find your paper interesting, but this is a professional paper that lacks a solid scientific contribution. Furthermore, some parts of the paper are interesting only to readers from Korea as for example other readers are not familiar with the regions in Korea and the meaning for this research.
Thank you for the constructive comments. We added the contributions, limitations, and future research direction in the conclusion.
“To extend our understanding on green jobs, first, studies on causal mechanism for green job match and mismatch could be promising future. The BDA in this study is descriptive. Scientific research on why there are matches and mismatches in regions, sector, timing, and salary would shed lights on future green job supply and demand studies. Second, the prediction of job supply and demand matches and mismatches using a machine learning process would provide valuable information for job seekers, businesses, industry, education institutes, and policymakers. Prediction would request more data collection, well-designed feature extractions, and learning algorism. Third, the expansion of BDA on job supply and demand matching and mismatching in other sectors, such as information & communication technology (ICT), would enhance our understanding of the job market. Furthermore, BDA in other countries will provide comparative understandings of green job supply and demand. Most countries have job recruiting websites. Collecting, data processing, and analyzing job recruiting and seeking information would reveal matches and mismatches in regions, sectors, timing, salaries, and the country specific features. In this comparative manner, we could understand general features as well as specific features of green job distribution. Fourth, analyzing more nuanced elements such as job descriptions and requirements would offer detailed information for stakeholders.”
Mentioning COVID-19 in the context of green jobs is not really necessary.
-We deleted the term, COVID-19 in the abstract. However, given the relevance between economic downturn, COVID-19 and green job creation, we left the term as follow, “The “Green Job” concept has gained rhetorical prominence in the last two decades globally, and its popularity is growing in the economic recession caused by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.”
Prior to resubmitting the paper elsewhere, I advise you to improve your theoretical background about green jobs and to find research gaps and your unique contribution. Current descriptive analysis does not provide scientific contribution.
- One of our main concern about green job is that nations have not reached a definitional consensus regarding what constitutes a “green job.” As we explained in 3-1, Ecojob (online job market platform specialized in green job in South Korea) also does not have a concrete standard to classify or categorize what green jobs mean.
- We think our research has found the research gaps unduly ignored in green job studies; that is, the existence of mismatch in green job market. As we reviewed in 2-3, it is undeniable that the mismatches in the green labor market have not been thoroughly examined. As explained in the paper, job mismatch itself is not a new finding but an issue that has been dealt with for a long time. However, corollary of this fact that job mismatch can exist in green job market has not been paid attention to within academic circle. Thus, our research contributes to revealing the existence of green job mismatch, which would enable further studies to explore various issues regarding green job mismatch. This, we think, is the main contribution to green job studies. Regarding above, it seems reasonable to say that our “descriptive analysis” provides “scientific contribution” on the unexamined area, as well as “policy contribution.” It is to say that, if mismatches in the green labor market actually exist (as we showed through our research), green job policy must be re-assessed based on the comprehensive evaluation of green job mismatches and their effect on the economy. To demonstrate the targeted research gap and our unique contribution more clearly, we revised 2-3 as follows.
“Notwithstanding conflicting opinions on some specific issues, job mismatch literature reveals the general consensus that job mismatches are critical to increasing unemployment and dampening labor productivity. Consequently, they should be considered during policy-making. This finding from job mismatch literature allows us to pose a new research question that has not been duly addressed before in green job studies. As explained above, green job studies have been primarily interested in demonstrating green job’s promised economic performance. However, given the result of job mismatch studies, they ignore a possibility, an implication of which could be serious enough to demand a new research.
The established finding that job mismatches occur in the general labor market indicates the possibility that occupational and geographic mismatches within the green labor market could happen and may now be taking place. If mismatches in the green labor market actually exist, it has an important implication for an economic performance. As job mismatch studies show clearly, they would disturb labor productivity and increase unemployment within green job market. This also would be a serious challenge for policy-makers. Some governments declared a “green new deal” to remedy unemployment and the economic crisis. However, if a considerable amount of green job mismatch exists, it is evident that they could not obtain the expected policy result. In this case, green job policy must be thoroughly re-assessed beforehand based on the comprehensive evaluation of green job mismatches and their effect on the economy.
Then, what needs to be done first is to see if there exists a green job mismatch or not and, if it really is, to identify its characteristics and compare them by country. This needs to be a research agenda that attracts green job studies. However, until now, even a basic research has not been conducted in this area. That is, it has not been determined whether a green job mismatch exists. Our study tries to open up new filed of research within green job studies by tackling simple research questions; that is, ‘Is there a job mismatch ?’, ‘If it is, what is its characteristics?’ To answer these questions, this study especially addresses a green job market in South Korea.”
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper is interesting but some integrations are required to the authors.
I ask the authors to explain if in Korea all new workers in green sectors are registered in the Ecojob database.
This is important because not all new workers could be registered in the database and thus escape the analysis.
It would be interesting to represent, over time, the trend of employees in some of the 18 sectors of activity indicated in Figure 3
Comparing the data with the results of the analysis would allow us to better understand the phenomenon under investigation
Check on line 581 if the term supply is correct (demand instead of supply?).
I also ask to the authors to to investigate the reason of some mismatches; for example, what kind of education the "Water quality" industries require? and what tipe of education have the job-seeking workers?
Author Response
REVIEWER 2:
The paper is interesting but some integrations are required to the authors.
I ask the authors to explain if in Korea all new workers in green sectors are registered in the Ecojob database.
This is important because not all new workers could be registered in the database and thus escape the analysis.
- this is meaningful comment about the data we used. We also hope that we could utilize all new workers for green job in South Korea, but unfortunately South Korea or Ecojob does not provide the data for entire job seekers yet. But we think that the fact that our collected data only represents active job seekers using the online job application function of Ecojob and they cannot be considered the complete set of green job seekers in South Korea does not undermine our main arguments in this research.
we added a paragraph regarding this in the last part of 3.1.:
“Although the Ecojob site provides two primary methods for job-seekers, the online job application and the email job application, the registered information of job-seekers is needed only for the former. Thus, while those who fill in their “Talent Profile” can be considered active job-seekers using the online job application function of Ecojob, they cannot be considered the complete set of green job-seekers in South Korea. This is a limit of the data we collected, but unfortunately Ecojob and any other platforms in South Korea do not provide the data of entire job-seekers for green job yet. Despite of the fact that the collected data only represents active job-seekers registered in Ecojob and they cannot be considered the complete set of green job seekers in South Korea, we believe it is enough to analyze overall tendency of matches and mismatches of green job and thus does not undermine our main arguments in this research.“
It would be interesting to represent, over time, the trend of employees in some of the 18 sectors of activity indicated in Figure 3.
Comparing the data with the results of the analysis would allow us to better understand the phenomenon under investigation
- this is also a thankful comment. We added the trend of employees in some more sectors (of top 6) as you recommended.
Check on line 581 if the term supply is correct (demand instead of supply?).
- Thank you very much for your check. That was our fault, we changed the term as “demand.”
I also ask to the authors to to investigate the reason of some mismatches; for example, what kind of education the "Water quality" industries require? and what tipe of education have the job-seeking workers?
- This is good suggestion that we already concerned about. We also have data about required education or qualification in certain industries, but it was very hard to analyze the data mainly due to its irregularities. Regarding this, we decided that it is hard to consider (or scientifically argue) that the data as a reason of some mismatches. We would like to have further research on this issue in near future.
we added a paragraph regarding this in the last part of 3.3.:
“Lastly, we would like to mention that the Ecojob data also includes educational requirements and qualifications such as industry and occupational licenses in certain industries, but it was excluded from the mismatch analysis mainly due to its irregularities. Intuitively, we can see the certain level of mismatches between the supply and demand on the requirements and qualifications, but regarding above, it is hard to deal with the current data set. We would like to do further research on this issue in near future.”
Reviewer 3 Report
Excellent and needed study. Well done analysis of data and gaps. My only suggestion is to expand the section for the implications and recommendations. Perhaps you should also clarify the limited of the research in the considered countries and available data sets.
Author Response
REVIEWER 3:
Excellent and needed study. Well done analysis of data and gaps. My only suggestion is to expand the section for the implications and recommendations. Perhaps you should also clarify the limited of the research in the considered countries and available data sets.
we added paragraph regarding your recommendation in the parts of 3.3:
“As the gap line illustrate, there was more supply than demand during the late half of Lee’s regime, while there was more demand than supply during the specific period of Moon’s. Primarily, this is related to the overall tendency of job market and unemployment in South Korea. However, at the same time, it would be interpreted as a result of the demand for green jobs, i.e. the change of perceptions of job-seekers about green job. Simply put, it can be said that job-seekers were relatively not familiar with green job and not prepared for it in the former case of green job policy under Lee administration, compared to the present. On the other hand, in the recent case of Moon administration, the job-seeker’s preference for green job are higher than ever with general awareness in environmental issues.”
“The third mismatch is a gap by industry. As described previously, the supply and demand registered in Ecojob are concentrated in specific industries. For example, 22.09% of the entire supply (company’s industry code) and 19.86% of the entire demand (job seeker’s desired industry code) are only for the water quality industry. As presented in Table 2, the top five industries with the highest supply and demand account for more than 50% of the total supply and demand. However, alone with BDA, it is hard to provide a clear indication of why there is more demand for particular industries, i.e. the industrial preference of job-seekers. One possible hypothesis is that the tendency is related to difficulty and salary of industries. Considering that the degree of work difficulty may be different within the same industry, further qualitative research is required to verify this. And the correlation with salary will be examined in more detail below, but it also did not show significant differences depending on the industry.”
We expanded the conclusion section as follow.
“These findings suggest policy implications. First, tracing matches and mismatches of green job supply and demand is essential for providing information to businesses, job seekers, and governments. Sharing job-seeking information and providing an overview of supply and demand in the recruiting website would help stakeholders in the green job market. Second, with the match and mismatch information, central and local governments can collaborate with local green businesses to foster environmentally-friendly industries and companies. Green new deal and job creation policies should be based on locally available data. In addition, vocational education in high schools and colleges should be tailor-made programs to cope with the environmental problems that local areas face. Supporting green venture and start-up companies would facilitate innovation and job creation in local areas. Third, for comprehensive green job supply and demand data, Ecojob should incorporate renewable- and energy-related job postings. In Korea, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy manages energy-related policies (including renewable energy) and jobs. The Ministry of Environmental manages conventional environmental industries, including water, air, and waste management. If the job seeking and hiring data could cover all relevant jobs, the scope of the green job would be widely considered in the analysis. Combining conventional and new green job data is imperative.
To extend our understanding on green jobs, first, studies on causal mechanism for green job match and mismatch could be promising future. The BDA in this study is descriptive. Scientific research on why there are matches and mismatches in regions, sector, timing, and salary would shed lights on future green job supply and demand studies. Second, the prediction of job supply and demand matches and mismatches using a machine learning process would provide valuable information for job seekers, businesses, industry, education institutes, and policymakers. Prediction would request more data collection, well-designed feature extractions, and learning algorism. Third, the expansion of BDA on job supply and demand matching and mismatching in other sectors, such as information & communication technology (ICT), would enhance our understanding of the job market. Furthermore, BDA in other countries will provide comparative understandings of green job supply and demand. Most countries have job recruiting websites. Collecting, data processing, and analyzing job recruiting and seeking information would reveal matches and mismatches in regions, sectors, timing, salaries, and the country specific features. In this comparative manner, we could understand general features as well as specific features of green job distribution. Fourth, analyzing more nuanced elements such as job descriptions and requirements would offer detailed information for stakeholders.”
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Thank you for addressing my comments. The text is now improved.
Reviewer 2 Report
Reviewer: [1] I ask the authors to explain if in Korea all new workers in green sectors are registered in the Ecojob database.
Authors: added a paragraph regarding this in the last part of 3.1.
[OK]
Reviewer [2]: It would be interesting to represent, over time, the trend of employees in some of the 18 sectors of activity indicated in Figure 3.
Comparing the data with the results of the analysis would allow us to better understand the phenomenon under investigation
Authors: added the trend of employees in some more sectors (of top 6) as you recommended.
[OK]
Reviewer [3]: Check on line 581 if the term supply is correct (demand instead of supply?).
Authors: That was our fault, we changed the term as “demand.”
[OK]
Reviewer [4] I ask to the authors to to investigate the reason of some mismatches; for example, what kind of education the "Water quality" industries require? and what tipe of education have the job-seeking workers?
Authors: added a paragraph regarding this in the last part of 3.3.:
[OK]
