Branchenwechsel im Bauhauptgewerbe : eine Analyse der IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe für die Jahre 1980 bis 1995 (Changes of trade in the core construction industry : an analysis of the IAB employment sample for the years 1980 to 1995)

"Owing to specific production conditions, the construction labour market is characterised by a relatively high level of employment inconstancy compared with other industries. 'Employment flexibility' in the form of frequent changes of employer and regular periods of unemployment characterise the daily working life of construction workers. Although figures are available on the extent and the development of the fluctuation on the construction labour market, there is hardly any empirical data on the inflow into and the outflow from the building trade. Nevertheless it is assumed in relevant literature that the construction labour market shows firstly higher rates of outflow from the trade and secondly lower rates of inflow than is the case in other branches of the economy. With the aid of the data from the IAB employment sample (IABS), this paper examines the trade mobility in western Germany's core construction industry between 1980 and 1995; the engineering industry is used by way of comparison. Although at first in a general examination it can be seen that at least until the beginning of the 1990s the construction industry did in fact show higher rates of outflow than engineering, a more complex analysis shows, however, that this could be put down above all to the outflow of unemployed construction workers and relatively young unskilled workers. In contrast, the core construction industry managed at least as well as the engineering industry in the period under review to bind skilled employees or to 'recruit' them from other industries. In addition to this, workers returning to the construction industry or to a construction firm play a considerably more important role on the whole in this context than is the case in engineering. Ultimately the results show that employment flexibility and labour market regulation need not be mutually exclusive in principle. It is rather more to be assumed that the reason why the building trade manages both to bind skilled employees to the industry and to gain skilled personnel from other industries is that the construction-specific regulation system cushions the greater employment risks for employees and firms." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))