Erwerbsformen in Krisenzeiten: Was folgt aus Corona?

During recent decades, the composition of employment forms has changed significantly. There are mostly structural reasons for the long-term growth of employment forms such as part-time employment, fixed-term contracts, agency work and one-person-businesses. Amongst other issues the changing requirements of firms regarding their personnel policies, a redefinition of work during the individuals’ life cycle and regulatory adjustments have all played an important role. In addition, economic crises can influence the distribution of employment forms because they may affect industries differently and – in the case of a subsequent labour-market crisis – alter the market power of employees. The article shows that past economic crises had affected mainly full-time permanent employment as well as agency work because the manufacturing industry was mainly concerned. During the Covid-19 pandemic first results show that part-time employment implying a low monthly income (so-called mini-jobs) and one-person-businesses were affected heavily for the first time. Because these employment forms are hardly protected in terms of social security, the suitability of existing regulations needs to be put under scrutiny.