Kurzbeschreibung

Almost 20 percent of all male employees in Germany who become unemployed return to their previous employers. Such temporary layoffs and the following recalls are often used to externalize firm’s labour costs on society and unemployment insurance, which led to different legislations that prohibit and reduce this undesired instrument in Germany. This paper analyzes the interplay between fixed-term contracts, which can be used to undermine legal regulations, and temporary layoffs for men. For this purpose, I use comprehensive administrative data at individual level, complemented by various firm characteristics. My results show that unemployed workers, who worked previously in fixed-term contracts are often recalled by their previous firms. Moreover, older and low-skilled employees but also migrants are in particular affected by the interplay between fixed-term contracts and temporary layoffs. This is also confirmed for women in additional robustness analysis.