The shift to an entrepreneurial society and the knowledge divide

The shift towards a service oriented economy is rooted in the progress of productivity, which has taken place in all developed economies over the last decades. This development is supported by increasing academic knowledge within education and continuing professional education. Therefore the question is, whether the link between (professional) education and occupation is losing its strength or not. In the former case, the shift to a service oriented society would help to overcome the knowledge divide. In the latter case the knowledge divide could become even more problematic with the danger of the exclusion of an increasing number of people. In the paper, the interconnection between occupation and education is discussed.

For the empirical analysis the Microcensus data of the Federal Statistical Office Germany covering the period 2001 to 2010 will be used. On the basis of this large representative sample it will be analysed whether a shift into a service oriented society has opened up new venues for reducing the knowledge divide of employment for people with a specific education over the last ten years.

First results indicate that we have at least to distinguish between two processes. On one hand there are the classic occupations – especially the free or independent professions. For these occupations we find a structure which one may be  describe as sclerotic. In these cases we find a close connection between education and occupation.

On the other hand, we find an increasing number of people, for whom self-employment is either the result of e.g. the possibility to use their specific human capital to work independently and to completetheir life’s dream or they became solo self-employed out of the need to earn a living – especially in the case of solo self-employment. These people have very heterogeneous professional histories, alternating between self-employment and dependent employment as well as phases of interrupted employment.