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Learning Labor Market Lessons from Germany
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The Harz labor reforms in Germany in 2003 changed the way unemployment was treated. The idea was to get the government to work more closely with private employers through several initiatives to fund jobs that did constructive work within these companies. This helped reduce structural unemployment because of the almost indefinite unemployment benefits that existed earlier, reducing it from 12.7% in 2005 to 7.1% in November 2008. In November 2009 even after a year of recesion it stands at 8.6%. Are there lessons for other countries in the German experience? THe Harz reforms directed the German Labor Agency to work closely with private employers to fund newly created jobs. One such program paid a Dutch staffing agency Randstad to teach 15,000 Germans information technology, business English an other skills. THe Labor agency funds jobs at a Daimler truck facility in Worth, near Stuttgart, where short term employees instead of being laid off work as mechanic trainees. Another initiative pays parts of the wages of workers hired from those who are jobless, so that the costs of retraining are shared by the government and the employer, making it more attractive to take a chance and go out and hire. And if you lose your job the Harz reforms made it possible to get unemployment benefits for an additional 6 months, if you went out and started a small business. Like the case of an employee who worked at a Kawasaki motorbicycle dealership, who started his own bike repair shop. There are political pressures to extend unemployment benefits as the recesssion becomes more severe. And the structural mismatch in jobs going unfilled, and the number turned out by universities is still a problem. One study by Adecco Institute, shows 29% of large German companies having trouble filling technical jobs, which is why these companies try to keep all their experienced employees.
Rapid structural shifts in U.S. job openings and a mismatch that will require greater job retraining effort.
04/30/2009
JOLTS and COnference Board job openings figures shows 3 million job openings in February 2009, with mismatch in qualifications of candidates from industries losing jobs (finance, retail, construction) and industries gaining jobs (health care, education, government, accounting). Is the US market becoming less mobile?
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Fast structural shift from banking, autos and retail to health care, energy, government and education in the USA, makes equally rapid government assisted retraining and cost sharing enormously critical.
01/28/2009
Retraining will be critical to shift workers from downsizing to upsizing industries and fields of work. The danger is that a growing mismatch in qualifications and lack of a crisis mode in retraining efforts will leave large numbers of people permanently unemployed. The shift is ocurring with lightining speed. Would government sharing the initail cost of hiring and retrainng workers help as in the German example and the Harz reforms. See link.
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The serious problem of the large proportion of long term unemployed in the total number of unemployed persons in the U.S., with the figure higher than 40% in 2012. More than any downturn in the postwar period the present situation presents the danger of increasing numers of permanently unemployed workers. Retraining become a big issue as some industries like autos are permanently downsized, and others like healthcare and renewable energy which are growing will require retraining.
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Merkel has quietly established her own approach and style of governing, less on rhetoric, and more on substance and social market principles that are popular in Germany. Her popularity goes far beyond that of the CDU, and she has defined new positions for the CDU, from aiding workers, promoting daycare, fighting for environmental goals, and bringing a new perspective on immigration. The result is a distinctly German approach to the crisis based on German conditions and preferences.
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What America can learn from the German example for government help to retrain workers and share costs to hire and retrain.
04/30/2009
The need for initiatives in this area are supercritical to handle the economic recovery correctly because of deepseated changes in the labor markets. In the absence of this high unemployment will coexist with millions of vacancies because of amismatch of qualifications. A lack of worker mobility. because of housing problems compounds this situation.
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Nobel Laureate Michael Spence offers solutions to the job crises and high unemployment facing the U.S.
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Learning Labor Market Lessons from Germany
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What the U.S. and other eurozone countries can learn from Germany in reducing unemployment (1)
04/30/2009
The Harz labor market reforms under the Schroeder administration helped Germany reduce unemployment after over a decade of high unemployment folowing reunification.
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Learning Labor Market Lessons from Germany
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