The dual labour market (also referred to as the segmented labour market) theory aims at introducing a broader range of factors into economic research, such as institutional aspects, race and gender. It divides the

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

into two parts, called the "primary" and "secondary" sectors. The distinction may also be drawn between formal/informal sectors or sectors with high/low value-added. A broader concept is that of

labor market segmentation Labor market segmentation is the division of the labor market according to a principle such as occupation, geography and industry. One type of segmentation is to define groups "with little or no crossover capability", such that members of one segme ...

. While the word "dual" implies a division into two parallel markets, segmentation in its broadest sense may involve several distinct labor markets. In a dual labour market, a secondary sector is characterized by short-term

employment Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

relationships, little or no prospect of internal

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

, and the determination of

wage A wage is payment made by an employer to an employee for work done in a specific period of time. Some examples of wage payments include compensatory payments such as ''minimum wage'', ''prevailing wage'', and ''yearly bonuses,'' and remuner ...

s primarily by market forces. In terms of occupations, it consists primarily of low or unskilled jobs, whether they are

blue-collar A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involving manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, electricity generation and powe ...

(manual labour), white-collar (e.g. filing clerks), or

service industry The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the second ...

(e.g. waiters). These jobs are linked by the fact that they are characterized by "low skill levels, low earnings, easy entry, job impermanence, and low returns to education or experience."The Dual Labor Market: Theory and Implications, in The State and the Poor, edited by Samuel H. Beer and Richard Barringer, pp. 55-59. Winthrop Publishers. The

informal economy An informal economy (informal sector or grey economy) is the part of any economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government. Although the informal sector makes up a significant portion of the economies in developing countrie ...

consists of labour that is often "pay-under-the-table". This market tends to attract the poor and a disproportionate number of

minority group The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...

members. The dual labour market theory generally ignores the micro-level decisions such as an individual’s cost-benefit analysis. Instead, it focuses on immigration as a “natural consequence of

economic globalization Economic globalization is one of the three main dimensions of globalization commonly found in academic literature, with the two others being political globalization and cultural globalization, as well as the general term of globalization. Econom ...

and market penetration across national boundaries” (Massey, ''et al.'', 1993, p. 432). In whole, it is not concerned with individual decisions to migrate but focuses on what pulls them, as a collective group, to migrate. It argues that international migration starts from the labour demands of modern civilization.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dual Labour Market Labour economics