Pre- and post-injury job type distributions of individuals with SCI in relation to structural changes in the labor market: A comparative analysis based on findings from the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study

Abstract

Objective: To compare pre- and post-injury job type distributions of individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) living in Switzerland.

Design: Cross-sectional, self-report survey.

Setting: Community.

Participants: Two hundred sixty-three individuals reporting a pre- and 677 a post-injury job title in the Swiss SCI Cohort Study community survey.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Outcome Measures: Job titles were elicited by free-text questions and classified using the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO-08). Frequencies across ISCO-08 major groups were calculated and compared to Swiss labor market statistics for 1995 and 2011.

Results: Compared to pre-SCI, Professionals (16.3% vs 31.2%) and Clerical Support Workers (11.7% vs 19.1%) were more prevalent and Crafts and Related Workers (26.5% vs 5.4%) less common post-injury. Except for Clerical Support Workers, these results reflect recent structural changes in the Swiss labor market.

Conclusion: The higher post-SCI prevalence of jobs predominantly requiring cognitive and communication skills compared to rather physically oriented jobs mirrors structural changes in the labor market, except for clerical jobs. Future return-to-work strategies should not primarily target the clerical sector with its diminishing job opportunities, but promote vocational re-training towards jobs requiring higher education and assistive technology to return individuals with limited cognitive resources to physically oriented jobs.

Keywords:

• Spinal cord injury
• Job types
• Job classification
• ISCO-08
• Swiss labor market

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the participants of the SwiSCI survey for their time and effort spent in responding to the questions. We also thank Johannes Siegrist for his critical revision of the manuscript. We further thank the personnel of the SwiSCI study center and the members of the SwiSCI Steering Committee: Xavier Jordan, Bertrand Léger (Clinique Romande de Réadaptation, Sion); Michael Baumberger, Hans Peter Gmünder (Swiss Paraplegic Center, Nottwil); Armin Curt, Martin Schubert (University Clinic Balgrist, Zürich); Margret Hund-Georgiadis, Kerstin Hug (REHAB Basel, Basel); Thomas Troger (Swiss Paraplegic Association, Nottwil); Daniel Joggi (Swiss Paraplegic Foundation, Nottwil); Hardy Landolt (Representative of persons with SCI, Glarus); Nadja Münzel (Parahelp, Nottwil); Mirjam Brach, Gerold Stucki (Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil); Martin Brinkhof (SwiSCI Study Center at Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil).

Disclaimer statements

Contributors None.

Conflicts of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The present study was part of a project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant No. 153033) and has been financed in the framework of the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study (SwiSCI, www.swisci.ch), supported by the Swiss Paraplegic Foundation.