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Lennart Bolwin / Jörg Schmidt / Oliver Stettes IW-Trends No. 3 27. July 2022 Labour Mobility in Times of Digital and Ecological Transformation

Every year, on average, approximately every third job in Germany sees a change of occupant. However, the fluctuation coefficient, which describes turnover in the labour market, has fallen noticeably in the wake of the Covid 19 crisis – from 33.1 per cent in 2019 to 29.8 per cent in 2020.

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Labour Mobility in Times of Digital and Ecological Transformation
Lennart Bolwin / Jörg Schmidt / Oliver Stettes IW-Trends No. 3 27. July 2022

Labour Mobility in Times of Digital and Ecological Transformation

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

Every year, on average, approximately every third job in Germany sees a change of occupant. However, the fluctuation coefficient, which describes turnover in the labour market, has fallen noticeably in the wake of the Covid 19 crisis – from 33.1 per cent in 2019 to 29.8 per cent in 2020.

Taking only the data for the first half of each year shows that, at 14.5 per cent for 2021 compared with 15.9 per cent in 2019, the extent of job changing in the German labour market remained significantly lower in the second year of crisis than before the virus struck. However, behind the figures for the national labour market lurk significant sectoral differences. For example, labour turnover is high in the hospitality and ‘other business services’ sectors, but low in manufacturing and the public sector. The present empirical analysis fails to turn up any evidence of digitalization or the ecological transition contributing to these differences in labour turnover in the various sectoral clusters. Indeed, there appears to be no systematic correlation between the level of the fluctuation coefficient and four indicators that capture the stage reached by the transformation in each branch of industry. Thus, it remains an open question whether the labour market will become more dynamic as digitalisation and moves to combat global warming continue to transform the economy.

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Labour Mobility in Times of Digital and Ecological Transformation
Lennart Bolwin / Jörg Schmidt / Oliver Stettes IW-Trends No. 3 27. July 2022

Labour Mobility in Times of Digital and Ecological Transformation

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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