World News Insights
1-3 Minute Gist
Search, personalize, or simply browse. Follow the world around you from gist and context to insights.
Who we are | Our Credo | Ways of using Lyrarc | FAQ | Send Feedback | First Letter From the Editor
Sign up. It's free and easy to use
Create an account
to personalize your feed of articles and topics.
All Topics Article
Cutting Hours Instead of Jobs
Keywords:
The U.S. has 22 states that offer some form of work sharing programs to reduce layoffs by having workers work for shorter hours and receive partial unemployment insurance. This is a variation of the "kurzarbeit" programs that have helped Germany reduce layoffs during 2009 and during the period of high unemployment in Germany following the reunification of the country. Worksharing has major benefits in high tech and manufacturing industries where it is difficult to replace employees when the downturn is over and demand picks up. For the economy as a whole it reduces the stress of higher unemployment from cyclical swings in the economy.
Germany's "kurzarbeit" and government-business cooperation to tackle cyclical swings in the economy
07/29/2010
About half a million jobs were saved by one estimate through the German government sharing the costs of labor retention with industry during the last downturn. The program is known as "kurzarbeit" in Germany and is accepted by the German public, workers and business as a better way to handle the cyclical swings in the economy. The lack of a similiar program in the U.S. means a larger loss of jobs in the U.S., which is being painfully felt in 2011-2012. U.S. programs focussed on a stimulus measure and government spending, not on a program of joint cooperation between industry and government such as "kurzarbeit." There is no history of such cooperation in the U.S. and the government is seen more in the sense of intervention than cooperation with industry.
Grouped Articles
The Price of Saving Jobs in Germany
BusinessWeek 07/29/2010
Where Germany, U.S. differ: How much should government steer the economy? - The Washington Post
Washington Post 06/08/2011
Fixing America's Economy: Nine Ideas from Around the World
BusinessWeek 06/08/2011
Growth in Euro Zone Stalls, Slowing Debt Crisis Solution
New York Times 08/16/2011
Germany reaps rewards of entitlement cuts - The Washington Post
Washington Post 09/20/2011
Wall Street Journal 11/21/2011
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.
Grouped Articles
New York Times 12/27/2011
Jamie Dimon’s harried JPMorgan Chase pushes campaign for worker training - The Washington Post
Washington Post 01/03/2014
Jobless Scars Will Outlast the Recession
Wall Street Journal 03/09/2009
Help Wanted: Why That Sign's Bad
BusinessWeek 04/30/2009
Learning Labor Market Lessons from Germany
BusinessWeek 04/30/2009
The Last Holdouts Cast Their Lot With G.M.
New York Times 05/21/2009
Kurzarbeit and other programs in Germany that reduce unemployment with government subsidizing shorter work weeks.
01/04/2008
Grouped Articles
The Price of Saving Jobs in Germany
BusinessWeek 07/29/2010
Economist 10/01/2009
German Workers' Wages Belie Country's Rebound
Wall Street Journal 08/17/2010
BusinessWeek 02/02/2011
Germany's economy: Angela in Wunderland
Economist 02/05/2011
Fixing America's Economy: Nine Ideas from Around the World
BusinessWeek 06/08/2011
Work sharing programs in U.S. states in 2011-2012
11/21/2011
Grouped Articles
Wall Street Journal 11/21/2011
The Age of the Superfluous Worker
New York Times 11/24/2011
Germany's Kurzarbeit plan and other methods of softening the impact of a recession on jobs and wages.
10/28/2006
About 1.5 million employees used the Kurzarbeit short work week schedules according to the German labor agency. In the latest month March 2010, 693,000 workers were on the Kurzarbeit short week schedule.
Grouped Articles
The Price of Saving Jobs in Germany
BusinessWeek 07/29/2010
Germany's economy: Angela in Wunderland
Economist 02/05/2011
Fixing America's Economy: Nine Ideas from Around the World
BusinessWeek 06/08/2011
Wall Street Journal 11/21/2011
The Age of the Superfluous Worker
New York Times 11/24/2011
Bayer: Pressure on Prices Has Bad Side Effects
Wall Street Journal 02/07/2012
What the U.S. and other eurozone countries can learn from Germany to reduce unemployment (2)
07/29/2010
The "kurzarbeit" program for job retention in Germany and how it is beginning to be applied in the U.S.
Linked Articles
Wall Street Journal 11/21/2011
The Price of Saving Jobs in Germany
BusinessWeek 07/29/2010
We took a different way to help millions around the world build educated informed mindsets that affects and shapes their lives. For a future that is open, global and digital, with everyone having access to high quality information. We believe in the renewal of America, renewal of Europe, the renewal of India, the rest of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The renewal of our supply chains, health, education, infrastructure, as we rebuild our countries after the pandemic. Literacy and knowledge we believe cannot thrive and grow in a world of web bots, web crawlers, or AI. This requires human curiosity, human learning, and human imagination. We take as inspiration the saying- “One has to be free, and as broad as sky. One has to have a mind that is crystal clear, only then can truth shine in it.” Every contribution whether big or small is precious- in this crisis and ahead.
Support Lyrarc from as small as $1
Terms and Conditions | Copyright Policy | Privacy Policy | Contact Us