Matching for three: big data evidence on search activity of workers, firms, and employment Service
14 January 2021
We generate measures for search intensity of employers and job seekers and – as a novel feature – for placement intensity of employment agencies. For this purpose, we tap big data on online activity from the job exchange of the German Federal Employment Agency and ist internal placement-so ftware. We use these data to estimate an enhanced matching function where the efficiency parameter varies with the search and placement intensities. The results show that the intensity measures significantly contribute to the variation in job findings.
IAB-Discussion Paper 1/2021
European Labour Market Barometer: No new slump in Europe’s job market
07 January 2021
Compared to the previous month, the European Labor Market Barometer rose by 0.5 points in December concluding the year at 98.9 points. The leading indicator of the European Network of Public Employment Services and the IAB thus points to a likely moderate, negative development of the European labor market in the coming months.
Press release
European Labour Market Barometer
Job Futuromat: New design, more content, updated data
23 December 2020
The IAB's Job Futuromat has not only been redesigned. It now also offers additional content and updated data. Among other things, the new occupations that have emerged since 2016 have been included; the occupational profiles and the substitution potential of occupations for technological opportunities in 2019 have been updated. more…
Direct access to IAB Job-Futuromat
Bernd Fitzenberger: „Health protection will help creating new jobs for unskilled workers“
21 December 2020
With every crisis comes opportunity. According to IAB director Bernd Fitzenberger, some positive developments can actually be identified as an accompanying effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are even opportunities for those disadvantaged on the labour market.
You can find the video on the IAB YouTube channel. Watch the YouTube-Video
The post-pandemic labour market. Video interviews with IAB Director Bernd Fitzenberger
21 December 2020
The whole world is talking about COVID-19. The hard lockdown in December this year threatens to send the German economy into recession. But this crisis too will pass. In a three-part interview series conducted in early November, IAB Director Bernd Fitzenberger risked a glance at the post-pandemic labour market.
The full article can be found in our Magazine IAB-Forum.
Click the following link for more articles in the series
Series “COVID-19 Crisis: Consequences for the Labour Market"
Short-time work, layoffs, and new hires in Germany: how the corona crisis differs from the financial crisis of 2009
16 December 2020
The spread of the coronavirus has plunged the German economy into the worst recession in its post-war history. The corona crisis has impacted the German economy and labour market much more heavily than the financial crisis of 2009: Significantly more sectors are affected today than in 2009. Nevertheless, the number of layoffs has so far been limited compared to the number of workers on short-time work. The fact that, to date, all sectors have relied much more on short-time work than on layoffs shows that the majority of companies have – thus far – been willing to keep their staff.
The full article can be found in our Magazine IAB-Forum.
Click the following link for more articles in the series: Series “COVID-19 Crisis: Consequences for the Labour Market”
The role of unemployment and job change when estimating the returns to Migration
16 December 2020
Estimating the returns to migration from East to West Germany, we focus on pre-migration employment dynamics, earnings uncertainty, and job change. Migrants are found to be negatively selected with respect to labor market outcomes, with a large drop in earnings and employment during the last few months before migration. We find sizeable positive earnings and employment gains of migration both in comparison to staying or job change. The gains vary considerably with pre-migration earnings and with the counterfactual considered. Future migrants have worse expectations for their labor market prospects in the East and migrants show a greater openness to mobility.
IAB-Discussion Paper 37/2020
Bernd Fitzenberger: “Even in this crisis firms are looking desperately to fill positions”
14 December 2020
As a consequence of the COVID-19 crisis, IAB director Bernd Fitzenberger expects an aggravating shortage of skilled labour due to declining migration and student exchange.
The video is available in the IAB Youtube-channel.
Watch the video
Distributional Effects of Macroeconomic Shocks in Real-Time: A Novel Method Applied to the COVID-19 Crisis in Germany
10 December 2020
The highly dynamic nature of the COVID-19 crisis poses an unprecedented challenge to policy makers around the world to take appropriate income-stabilizing countermeasures. To properly design such policy measures, it is important to quantify their effects in real-time. However, data on the relevant outcomes at the micro level is usually only available with considerable time lags. In this paper, we propose a novel method to assess the distributional consequences of macroeconomic shocks and policy responses in real-time and provide the first application to Germany in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, our approach combines different economic models estimated on firm- and household-level data: a VAR-model for output expectations, a structural labor demand model, and a tax-benefit microsimulation model. Our findings show that as of September 2020 the COVID-19 shock translates into a noticeable reduction in gross labor income across the entire income distribution. However, the tax benefit system and discretionary policy responses to the crisis act as important income stabilizers, since the effect on the distribution of disposable household incomes turns progressive: the bottom two deciles actually gain income, the middle deciles are hardly affected, and only the upper deciles lose income.
IAB-Discussion Paper 36/2020
Bernd Fitzenberger: “Short-time working scheme is a huge safety net for the labour market”
08 December 2020
In a video interview, Bernd Fitzenberger, PhD, gives his opinion on how Germany is handling the COVID-19 crisis. In view of the demographic development, the IAB director advises to be careful not to neglect the losers of the crisis. Since according to him, Germany will need them as the future labour force, especially in view of the decreasing migration.
You can find the video on the IAB YouTube channel. Watch the YouTube-Video
Video “Labour Market Transitions and the challenges of the Corona Crisis” by Bernd Fitzenberger
23 November 2020
In this video IAB-Director Bernd Fitzenberger highlights some worrying developments of the vocational training system in Germany. In addition, he summarizes three exemplary IAB-studies on labour market transitions, focussing on lower-qualified youth, high school students during school-closings, and occupational mobility. Fitzenberger held his speech on 7 September 2020 at the IAB-conference “Labour Market Transitions: Challenges for Public Policies and Research” in Nuremberg.
The Video is available at: Youtube
More videos of the conference are available at: the IAB Youtube-channel