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Job and worker flows in the Finnish business sector are studied during a deep recession in the early 1990s. The data set covers effectively the whole work force. The gross job and worker flow rates are fairly high. The evidence suggests that the adjustment of labor input has happened through a reduced hiring rate rather than through an increased separation rate. However, during the recession the group of declining plants included more and larger plants than before, which led to reduced employment. Excess worker turnover (churning) and excess job reallocation have been low during the recession. The evidence of the countercyclicality of job reallocation is mixed. The flows are calculated both for the whole business sector, and for seven main industries. Services have clearly higher flow rates than manufacturing, but the cyclical changes in the flows are fairly similar in all industries. To test the sensitivity of the results to data sources, job flows are calculated from three different statistics.

Using Spanish establishment-level data on temporary and permanent job and worker flows, we examine firms’ relative usage of fixed-term contracts in response to changes in their prior net employment expectations for the short-run and the long-run – viewed as proxies of how a wide variety of future shocks are ultimately perceived by establishments. The employment response of establishments to changing net employment expectations for the short-run is, primarily, suggestive of their reliance on fixed-term contracts as a buffer to cushion short-run changes in demand as well as to shield permanent workers from downward workforce adjustments. In contrast, their response to changes in net employment expectations for the long-run mostly hints on the use of fixed-term contracts as a screening device. Therefore, policies providing financial incentives to convert fixed-term into permanent contracts – thus targeting firms’ using fixed-term contracts as a screening device, are likely to only have limited effectiveness.

The influx of migrant workers from Central and Eastern Europe over the last decade represents the largest migratory flows to Norway in history and an unprecedented supply shock to parts of the Norwegian labour market. This article reviews existing research and summarises the findings in terms of (1) the volume, direction and temporal patterns of migration flows; (2) the economic integration of new labour migrants; (3) the impacts of labour migration on wages, employment, skills, and social organisation of work in affected industries and (4) the political and institutional responses to rising labour migration. The article concludes by discussing the overall long-term consequences of labour migration, particularly with regard to social inequality in Norway.

Applied research shows higher wages are associated with lower mobility at the establishment level. A usual interpretation is that high pay decreases labour turnover. The purpose of this paper is to test if such relationship holds for every type of worker in every type of firm.

The analysis is based on a linked employer-employee panel dataset covering the French private sector from 2002 to 2005. The authors compute establishment wage effects and use them as explanatory variables in labour mobility equations (for churning rate and quit rate). Using spline regression models enables to investigate for potential non-linearities.

The authors show that the relationship between churning rate and wage is non-linear and has the shape of an inverted J: the relation is negative and intense for establishments with low wage effect, weaker for average paying establishments and even becomes positive for very high-paying ones. This is true whatever the skill group of workers. It is also true for large establishments while the relationship is still negative but linear for small ones. The relationship between wages and quit rates has a strikingly similar pattern. This suggests that the link between churning and establishment wage effect is strongly related to quit decisions.

A possible interpretation of our results is that paying higher wages may be an effective stabilizing tool especially for employers in small establishments and when starting wages are relatively low.

The paper is the first to decompose the relationship between wage and mobility. It shows the relationship differs across establishment size and is not linear. The paper also shows quits play a role in this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the patterns and determinants of excess labour turnover (churning) in the Luxembourg labour market using a rich employer‐employee matched data set.

The paper formulates a model to explain churning rates using three sets of explanatory variables: various worker characteristics, establishment characteristics, and two‐digit sector‐specific characteristics. The data used are from the Luxembourg social security system for the period 1992‐2003.

The findings show that there are high churning levels in Luxembourg, that their determinants vary significantly across sectors, and that much of this variation can be explained by worker‐ and establishment‐specific features.

A major question, still undecided in the research literature, is whether churning is simply the result of random job‐worker mismatches.

There are relatively few prior studies that have examined which employee and employer characteristics are associated with excess worker turnover, and the paper is the first to analyze the phenomenon of churning in the Luxembourg labour market. Luxembourg has recently experienced impressive employment growth (about 3.5 percent annually) since the beginning of the 1990s; and, Luxembourg being a small economy, it was feasible to analyze the entire population of workers and firms.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of a causal nature about the relationship between wages and churning (“excessive” worker turnover).

Matched employer‐employee panel data from Portugal, covering the period 1986‐2000 are used in the study. Econometric methods are also used, including random effects tobit models, fixed effects and instrumental variables.

Unlike in previous research (which typically does not consider causal relationships), the paper presents evidence that wages do not necessarily decrease the amount of churning. If employers are forced to increase pay, they may respond by hiring different workers. Detailed evidence about the nature of job and worker flows and churning levels across industries is presented.

Future research should examine the paths of workers whose wages are affected by collective bargaining.

The paper provides additional evidence that effort may not be particularly sensitive to wages in some industries/occupations. The should be a better understanding of role of wages in personnel policies.

This paper is probably the first that seeks to examine the causal relationship between wages and churning. The results will be of interest to labour economists and human resource management experts.