Documents Zeitschrift für Arbeitsmarktforschung 169 results

"The employment situation of older workers in Germany used to be poor. However, in recent years it has improved considerably. Germany has shifted its policies to strengthen the labor market performance of older workers. Policy has focused on less early exits of older workers and far-reaching institutional changes concerning public pension schemes and unemployment benefit systems. A better overall development of the labor market and an increased labor force participation of women contributed to the more favorable employment situation of older workers. Nevertheless, we still observe severe problems for certain groups of older workers. The older workers are and the lower their skill level is the weaker is their labor market integration. If older persons are already unemployed they will experience severe difficulties to (re-)enter the labor market. In order to become actually a country for old workers the issue of employability needs much more attention. Such a strategy relies on continuous skill improvement as well as a healthy environment and does not only address older workers but also younger workers facing a prolonged working life."

"In modern work environments, employees need to flexibly adjust their abilities to an increasing complexity of their work place demands. We assumed that a fit between demands and individual abilities might positively influence work ability, job-related self-efficacy, and job satisfaction as important indicators of job performance. A misfit on the contrary, might have adverse effects and interfere with job performance measures. Linking to the demographic change, it is even more important to analyze if age has an impact on the association between fit or misfit and performance outcomes to reveal evidence for age specific intervention strategies. We asked 103 employees and 15 supervisors of a production company to rate individual abilities and work-place demands in the sensory, motor, and cognitive fields to identify associations between a fit/misfit and outcomes that influence job performance. Our analyses showed that a fit/misfit between subjectively perceived demands and abilities in motor control influenced job-related self-efficacy. This was particularly true for blue collar workers and for older employees. A fit/misfit between the supervisor- and employee-rated abilities to learn new tasks had a high impact on work ability. Both white and blue collar workers as well as middle aged and older employees were sensitive to this effect. A fit/misfit between employee- and supervisor rated ability to deal with high task complexity was not associated with job satisfaction over the entire group, but in white collar workers and older employees. We conclude that a fit/misfit between work abilities and demands as well as between self and supervisor ratings of the employees' abilities has to be constantly evaluated with regard to age and work type to maintain healthy and productive employees."

"Adopting a dynamic perspective, this paper investigates age-related staffing patterns in German establishments and their effect on innovative performance. First, we investigate how establishments achieve the necessary workforce rejuvenation - from the inflow of younger or from outflows of older workers. In addition, we explore whether certain staffing patterns are more likely to appear under different economic regimes. In a second step, we analyze whether an establishment's innovative performance is related to the staffing patterns it experiences. The analysis of linked-employer-employee data shows that most of the 585 German establishments covered rejuvenate by inflows of younger workers. Half of the establishments also use the outflow of older workers. Furthermore, workforces are more likely to become more age-heterogeneous in growing establishments. Finally, we do not find evidence that a youth-centered human resource strategy (always) fosters innovation."

"Aging is accompanied by changes in sensory, motor and cognitive functions. Particularly, a high status of so-called fluid cognitive functions is crucial for the employability at an older age. This status, which can be assessed by psychometric and neuroimaging methods, depends on a number of factors like physical constitution, nutrition, education and work demands. This paper systematically analyses factors affecting cognitive functions in aging and reviews current neuroscientific findings regarding training induced neuronal plasticity and compensation of cognitive declines in aging. In the second part the relationship between cognitive functions and the type of work will be discussed and the project PFIFF presented as an example for transfer of neuroscientific basic research to an applied context that aimed at ameliorating and evaluating age- and job-related cognitive deficits. The results of the first project period showed that cognitive decline, as revealed in behavior and brain wave data, may be accelerated by long-lasting unchallenging work and, hence, may occur already in middle age. In the second part of PFIFF a 3-month program consisting of a supervised cognitive training was implemented in a group of 120 assembly-line employees. Before and after the training a comprehensive battery of psychometric and EEG-based tests was administered. The results provide evidence that training in older employees with repetitive work improves impaired cognitive abilities and brain processes found in the first part of the project. These beneficial effects are apparently mediated by preserved brain plasticity in middle-aged and older individuals. This training approach appears to be suitable in order to improve mental fitness of elderly employees. The PFIFF project can be seen as a part of a comprehensive program for promoting mental fitness in older employees."

"In this article we present the interdisciplinary, developmental and systemic approach to the study of work and aging that guides research at the Jacobs Center on Lifelong Learning and Institutional Development (JCLL). We introduce basic principles of adult development including its plasticity, multi-directionality, and embeddedness in contexts. We describe the different dynamic internal (e.g., psychological, physiological) and external contexts (e.g., organizations, labor market institutions) relevant to the work context that influence adult development. We present how the various disciplinary perspectives at the JCLL contribute to a fuller understanding of various contextual systems and their interactions with regard to the work context. Finally, we describe how a systemic approach to research on work and aging can contribute to the creation of work contexts conducive to productive development across the adult lifespan as summarized in the notion of dynamic human resource management. Importantly, we consider a wider notion of 'productivity' that encompasses not only economic aspects but also intellectual, motivational and emotional outputs."

"We analyze unemployment dynamics for Germany on a regional basis by means of an approximate factor model. We first estimate the number of factors corresponding to the number of cycles. At least for the pre-'Hartz' reform data we find strong evidence for more than just one dynamic labor market cycle present in German regions. Thus, labor market dynamics are driven by more than a single nationwide business cycle. Next, we look for regional partitions reflecting the different cycles best. Our results indicate pronounced differences between East and West Germany for 1997 to 2004 and ongoing but reduced differences between 2005 and 2010. A convergence process is found to have taken place up until late 2001. There is evidence for the differences observed before 2004 to be driven by active labor market policy, which thus had a volatility-increasing effect on the labor market."

"The study explores routes off benefits through labour market integration for young adults in Germany. Policies for young people are focused on a rapid integration into employment or training to prevent long-term benefits dependency. The causes of long-term benefits receipt can be related to poor labour market opportunities. But in political and public discourse, long-term benefits dependency is most widely regarded as the consequence of young adults' low labour supply. The article examines the labour market transitions of 650 beneficiaries aged 18 to 24. The analysis combines survey data on beneficiaries in Germany and longitudinal register data for 2005 to 2007. Though most of the young adults surveyed enter employment or vocational training, a high percentage continues to receive benefits. Long-term benefits receipt is related to low levels of qualifications and young parenthood; there is no evidence for young people resigning themselves to benefits receipt."

"Der Beitrag stellt die Erhebung des gesamtwirtschaftlichen Stellenangebots (EGS) vor. Von großem Wert sind ihre Daten vor allem deshalb, weil in den empirischen Analysen zum Matching am Arbeitsmarkt die Such- und Entscheidungsprozesse der Arbeitgeberseite bisher wenig beleuchtet werden. Dies liegt nicht zuletzt daran, dass das gesamtwirtschaftliche Stellenangebot weder strukturell noch quantitativ durch die administrativen Daten beschrieben werden kann. Zudem gibt es außerhalb der EGS weder in Deutschland noch in einem anderen Land regelmäßige, gesamtwirtschaftlich repräsentative und so umfängliche Befragungen zum Verlauf von Stellenbesetzungen. Diese können im Detail analysiert werden, ebenso Stellenbesetzungsversuche, die erfolglos abgebrochen werden mussten. Quartalsweise werden außerdem Anzahl und Struktur der offenen Stellen ermittelt und veröffentlicht; die EGS ist die einzige Quelle für diese Informationen in Deutschland. Mit ihren vielfältigen Daten, die teils bis weit in die 90er Jahre zurückreichen, kann die Erhebung entscheidend zu einer Erweiterung der makroökonomischen Arbeitsmarktforschung beitragen, was durch die Freigabe der Daten forciert wird: Ab dem Jahr 2011 werden die einzelnen Befragungswellen externen Wissenschaftlern Schritt für Schritt über das Forschungsdatenzentrum des IAB zugänglich gemacht."