The adjustment of employment during the crisis. A comparison of international and sectoral (Policy Brief 284 - September 2012)
The job was very touched during the crisis. However, according to countries and sectors, its evolution has not always reflected the activity, decreasing more or less than expected. To better understand these dynamics, this note examines employment in eight major industrialized countries and three sectors of reference.
- The adjustment of employment during the crisis. An international comparison of sectoral and
It appears that employment is adjusted to the shock of activity in different ways: sometimes the adjustment of employment to the total demand was - it decreased in the same proportion to the latter, leaving unchanged the level of labor productivity. From the perspective of the company, this is the strategy of external labor flexibility. Spain, Denmark and finally to the United States, employment is even "surajusté", leading mechanically to productivity gains and a sharp increase in unemployment. In other cases, the adjustment of employment was partial (less decline in employment relative to that of the request), companies using fewer hours worked and / or real wages . These last two terms define the adjustment flexibility for their internal use. It has been observed particularly in Germany, Italy, the United States and France, where the shock of activity was thus absorbed significantly by reducing the number of hours worked per person in employment, and to exception of France, by the real wage.
In this respect, the strong retention of labor of German companies has motivated the study of mechanisms promoting employment adjustment by the number of hours worked, such as partial unemployment. On this last device, the most recent evaluations conclude its overall effectiveness during the crisis, to preserve jobs, but to varying degrees depending on the countries and sectors. They also highlight the difficulty of steering device proving optimal in a particular economic environment, whereas in a more general case it can hamper the structural adjustment of the economy and employment by supporting activities in decline .
It is then necessary to identify better the nature and magnitude of crises when they release one hand and during their development on the other hand, in order to adapt the instruments of public policy work. Faced with a shock of the magnitude observed in 2007-2008, structural risks may arise, as the progression of long-term unemployment and / or lower productivity gains, reducing the final potential output growth crisis. These risks must be arbitrated under particular those related to retention strategies in employment, which may hinder the structural changes and sectoral nature between companies.
In this paper, we study more specifically the risk of labor productivity. We seek to identify particular sectors and countries that experienced persistent shocks - affecting the structural level or trend productivity gains (Germany, France, the United Kingdom in the manufacturing sector for example) - and those who have returned to their growth path and for which shocks are revealed transient (the United States, Spain in the manufacturing sector for example).
Summary
- A typology of adjustments in the crisis
- Remedy unequal flexibility internal or external depending on the country in connection with the employment policies
- The issue of economic support
- Authors: Gilles Christel, Labour Employment Department, Jean-Paul Nicolai, Economics Finance department .
Keywords: international comparison, crisis, labor market sectors, employment policy, productivity and econometrics.