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Andrea Hammermann / Jörg Schmidt / Oliver Stettes IW-Analyse No. 149 27. July 2022 Labour turnover in Germany: The dynamics of worker transitions and their impact factors

Labour turnover in Germany tends to be relatively constant over time but decreases slightly in times of economic crisis, such as the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 or the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The dynamics of worker transitions and their impact factors
Andrea Hammermann / Jörg Schmidt / Oliver Stettes IW-Analyse No. 149 27. July 2022

Labour turnover in Germany: The dynamics of worker transitions and their impact factors

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

Labour turnover in Germany tends to be relatively constant over time but decreases slightly in times of economic crisis, such as the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 or the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is partly due to the fact that worker outflows are largely driven by employee resignations, which follow a procyclical pattern regarding the business cycle. While from the macroeco¬nomic perspective job-to-job transitions ensure an improved allocation of resources, high employee turnover is often seen as a signal for low employee retention. However, only few companies (around 9 percent in 2016) were actu¬ally concerned about the extent of their workforce turnover in the subsequent years. In fact, labour turnover and employment dynamics are regarded as strongly influenced by firm characteristics, such as its competitive pressure and a firm’s HR strategy. In contrast, the diversity of the workforce in terms of gender, age distribution and cultural background is of less importance for the dynamics of labour turnover. Regarding skilled labour shortages in con¬nection with structural changes brought about by the ecological and digital transformation, labour turnover may well gain even further importance as both a macroeconomic key figure and a KPI in corporate management.

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The dynamics of worker transitions and their impact factors
Andrea Hammermann / Jörg Schmidt / Oliver Stettes IW-Analyse No. 149 27. July 2022

Labour turnover in Germany: The dynamics of worker transitions and their impact factors

German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

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Blaue Sonnenkollektoren auf einem Gründach mit Sedumpflanzen zur Klimaanpassung
Andrea Hammermann / Roschan Monsef IW-Trends No. 3 19. July 2023

The Ecological and Digital Transformations

The participation of the labour force is a key element in both the ecological and digital transformations, since without their effort and know-how, these parallel processes cannot be successfully completed.

IW

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Roschan Monsef / Oliver Stettes IW-Trends No. 2 14. June 2023

Changes in Personnel Movement at the Corporate Level in the Digital and Ecological Transformations

Structural change in the labour market is traditionally accompanied by a reallocation of workers from shrinking sectors and companies to growing ones. Old jobs are lost and new ones created.

IW

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