Assessing perceived job quality among seasonal tourism workers. The case of Rimini, Italy

The paper aims at discussing the perceived job quality among seasonal workers in the tourism industry through the analysis of a sample of 407 seasonal workers hired in the summer of 2013 in the Province of Rimini, one of the most popular sun, sand and sea tourism destinations in Europe. The identification/construction of a job quality index is one of the most original contribution of this paper as it integrates the subjective components with a selection of objective items related to skills’ endowment and training opportunities and with a set of job holders characteristics, qualifications and occupations. The impact of each component is then evaluated and discussed in the paper by means of several statistical and econometric techniques including ANOVA and cluster analyses as well as OLS regressions. Results show that the perception of seasonal work seems thus to be more multifaceted than usually assumed. Although it is intrinsically precarious and characterized by objectively bad jobs under many aspects, such as stability, career opportunities, and skill requirements, workers’ perception of job quality is mixed, being positively influenced by the assignment to part-time and frontline positions. Such evidence provides relevant insights to design better jobs in the tourism industry and improve its long-term sustainability in contexts characterized by high seasonality.