The German Labour Market: Preparing for the Future

Felix Hüfner and Caroline Klein
Additional contact information
Felix Hüfner: OECD
Caroline Klein: OECD
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Felix Huefner ()

No 983, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: The strength of the German labour market response to the financial crisis of 2008-09 demonstrated the benefits of past labour market reforms, which raised work incentives, improved job matching and increased working hour flexibility. Going forward, the government should build on this success and address the remaining challenges which include raising the labour participation of females and older workers (which among other things will necessitate adjustments to the tax and education system) and fostering migration, notably of skilled workers. The significant ageing-related decline in the labour force exemplifies the urgency of further structural reforms in this area. This Working Paper relates to the 2012 Economic Survey of Germany, www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/germany.

Le marché du travail en Allemagne : préparer l´avenir La résilience dont a fait preuve le marché du travail allemand face à la crise financière de 2008-09 témoigne du bien-fondé des réformes passées, qui ont permis d’améliorer les incitations au travail, de garantir une meilleure adéquation entre offres et demandes d’emploi et de renforcer la flexibilité du temps de travail. Les pouvoirs publics allemands doivent s’appuyer sur ce succès pour relever les défis qui subsistent, à savoir augmenter le taux d’activité des femmes et des seniors (ce qui impliquera notamment des ajustements sur le plan de la fiscalité et du système éducatif) et encourager l’immigration, surtout des travailleurs qualifiés. La contraction importante de la main-d’oeuvre sous l’effet du vieillissement de la population témoigne de l’urgence de nouvelles réformes structurelles dans ce domaine. Ce document de travail se rapporte à l’Étude économique de l’OCDE sur l’Allemagne 2012, www.oecd.org/eco/etudes/allemagne.

Keywords: Allemagne; besoins de main d’oeuvre; chômage; emploi des femmes; female employment; Germany; labour force participation rates; labour shortages; migration; migration; older workers; taux d’activité; travailleurs âgés; unemployment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J11 J21 J22 J24 J26 J61 J63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-09-13
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-eec and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1787/5k92sn01tzzv-en (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:983-en

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().