Labor market tightness and individual wage growth: evidence from Germany

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

It is often stated that certain occupations in Germany, because of “Demographic Change “, are dwindling, implying a labor shortage. We investigate the 10-year wage growth of young employees entering the labor market in different occupations. Our findings suggest that regional labor market tightness in occupational fields significantly explains wage growth. Individuals who start their careers in a tighter labor market enjoy higher wage growth than workers in more relaxed labor markets. We identify some occupational fields where the effect is especially strong, such as several engineering groups, IT occupations, technicians, and some commercial occupations. Interestingly, health-care occupations reveal a reverse relation.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number16
JournalJournal for labour market research
Volume56
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2022
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-8909-4861/work/149081759

Keywords

Keywords

  • Demographic change, J31 (Wage Level and Structure, Wage Differentials), J44 (Professional Labor Markets, Occupational Licensing), Labor shortages, Occupation-specific wage curve, R23 (Regional labor markets), Wage growth