Separations at the Firm Level (original) (raw)

This paper analyzes the determinants of lay-o®s, job-to-job movements and total separations with a unique data set that combines information on individual¯rms and their workers. We are in particular interested in whether the lay-o® policy of¯rms can explain the relatively high level of unemployment amongst lower educated workers and the relatively strong sensitivity of their unemployment rate to the business cycle. We¯nd that lay-o® rates decrease with education but that the change over the cycle in the lay-o® rate of workers with a lower level of education compared to that of workers with a higher level of education can not explain the stronger cyclicality of the unemployment rate for lower educated workers. We conclude that this stronger cyclicality is not due to the personnel policy of rms.