The Effects of Corporate Decarbonisation on Employment and Wages

More than 90 per cent of employees who were working for an exposed firm in 2012 were still employed by the same company in 2023. A multivariate analysis of the sample from the Integrated Labour Market Biographies (SIAB) suggests that exposed workers are more likely to change employers than comparable employees from non-exposed firms. However, the risk of being temporarily unemployed for between 60 days and a year does not vary according to the degree of exposure. A supplementary analysis of the 2024 IW Employee Survey indicates that employees see their jobs threatened by environmental and climate protection regulations which affect their company’s business model. Nonetheless, their individual expectations of being re-employed by other companies show that they do not perceive this as a threat to their own long-term prospects in the labour market. Nor is there yet any evidence to suggest that decarbonisation will noticeably depress the wages of employees who leave an exposed company