Securing Jobs in Times of Recession. The German Experience during the Financial Crisis 2008/2009

As a consequence of the global financial crisis Germany experienced the deepest slowdown of its economy since World War II. However, given the sharp decrease of GDP the German labour market was quite stable compared to previous recessions when the labour market response was stronger. Therefore, there are empirical indications for temporary labour hoarding and it can be shown that the most significant factor for securing jobs was a reduction of working time. At the beginning of the crisis the conditions for short-time work became more attractive to firms. Therefore, non-subsidised forms of working time reductions or labour hoarding were complemented by public subsidies in the form of short-time work.