Labor Market Flows: Evidence from Chile Using Micro Data from Administrative Tax Records

Using administrative tax records for all formal Chilean firms and employees, we compute and characterize several labor flow measures. Our results show that labor mobility in Chile is large for international standards, with the reallocation rate averaging 37% over the last decade, the highest value among the 25 OECD countries with comparable data. The magnitude of labor reallocation is highly heterogeneous among firms and industries, being highest in Agriculture and Construction. Job reallocation is also high for smaller companies, especially due to high rates of firm creation and destruction, and for firms that pay lower wages. Finally, there is a significant procyclical behavior of workers’ entry rate, and, in smaller magnitude, a countercyclical reaction of the exit rate, which is consistent with international evidence that shows job creation to be the main adjustment mechanism over the business cycle.