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OECD Employment Outlook 2009

Tackling the Jobs Crisis

image of OECD Employment Outlook 2009
This 2009 edition of the OECD Employment Outlook provides an annual assessment of labour market developments and prospects in member countries. This issue focuses on the jobs crisis in particular and looks at steps taken by governments to help workers and the unemployed. It recommends ways of preventing current high levels of unemployment becoming entrenched.



The first chapter looks at the jobs crisis itself, analysing the implications for employment and social policy. The second chapter looks at how industry, firm, and worker characteristics shape job and worker flows. The third chapter examines the problem of the working poor, now exacerbated by the crisis. And the fourth examines pathways on to and off of disability benefits, a growing problem in most OECD countries. As in previous editions, a comprehensive statistical annex provides the latest data.

English Also available in: Spanish, French

How Do Industry, Firm and Worker Characteristics Shape Job and Worker Flows?

In all OECD countries, many new firms are created every year. At the same time, many existing firms expand, while others contract or even shut down. In the process, many jobs are created and workers are hired; even as many positions are suppressed and workers separate from their employers. The chapter presents stylised facts on gross job flows (i.e. job creation and destruction by firms) and gross worker flows (i.e. hirings and separations) drawing from internationally harmonised data. A wide range of empirical questions are investigated, as a prerequisite for assessing the role of policies in shaping job and worker flows. How large is the reallocation of jobs and workers? Which are the firms that create and destroy the most jobs? In which industries are hiring and dismissal rates largest? Who changes jobs most often? Are labour resources reallocated from the least to the most efficient firms? To address these questions, the chapter goes beyond aggregate data on job and worker flows by analysing industry-level and micro-data. Moreover, by stressing cross-country differences in labour flow patterns, the chapter underlines the potential role for country-specific policies and institutions.

English Also available in: French

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