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The Plight of Older Workers

Labor Market Experience after Plant Closure in the Swiss Manufacturing Sector

  • Book
  • Open Access
  • © 2016

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Overview

  • This open access book offers a comprehensive analysis of the individual level consequences of job displacement
  • Uses an original data set of over 1,200 workers from Switzerland’s industrial sector who lost their manufacturing jobs after the recent financial crisis
  • Reveals that the burden of structural change disproportionately falls on the shoulders of workers aged 55 and older who often face substantial barriers when trying to return to employment

Part of the book series: Life Course Research and Social Policies (LCRS, volume 5)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This open access book examines the economic, social, and psychological consequences of manufacturing plant closure at the individual level. Using an original data set of over 1,200 workers from Switzerland who lost their manufacturing jobs after the financial crisis of 2008, the author analyzes the determinants of reemployment, the sector of reemployment, and the change in wages over a two year period. 

In addition, coverage also explores how plant closure affects the social relationship between a displaced worker and his or her significant other, which includes a discussion of the coping strategies on the household level as well as how changes in a worker's social and occupational life affects overall satisfaction. 

Readers will discover that the burden of structural change disproportionately falls on the shoulders of workers aged 55 and older who often face substantial barriers when trying to return to employment. A larger portion of this group experience long-term unemployment and those who do manage to find a new job often suffer disproportionate wage loss.

This result is intriguing in the context of the current demographic change and contradicts the common assumption that young and low-qualified individuals are at greatest risk of unemployment. Advanced age—and not low education—appears to be the primary obstacle to workers finding job satisfaction after being laid off because of market conditions. 

Authors and Affiliations

  • National Centre of Competence in Research “Overcoming Vulnerability - Life Course Perspectives” - NCCR LIVES, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Isabel Baumann

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Plight of Older Workers

  • Book Subtitle: Labor Market Experience after Plant Closure in the Swiss Manufacturing Sector

  • Authors: Isabel Baumann

  • Series Title: Life Course Research and Social Policies

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39754-2

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and the Author(s) 2016

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-39752-8Published: 17 September 2016

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-81957-0Published: 06 July 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-39754-2Published: 08 September 2016

  • Series ISSN: 2211-7776

  • Series E-ISSN: 2211-7784

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XX, 195

  • Number of Illustrations: 40 b/w illustrations, 16 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Organizational Studies, Economic Sociology, Labor Economics, Industrial and Organizational Psychology

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