Dissatisfaction with Working Time and Workers' Training Opportunities. Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data

Training opportunities are unevenly distributed across workers. I use two highly-comparable matched employer-employee surveys collected in the most intense phase of economic restructuring in Australia and Canada to test the hypothesis that a worker's desire to work less hours may reduce his/her training opportunities. I find robust evidence of a negative correlation between the desire to work less intensively and training opportunities. Institutional differences in the retirement funding system, and the differential appeal of outside options in Australia and Canada may contribute to explain these results.