Do Economic Crises Reshape the Skill Content of Jobs? Evidence from Organizational Changes in the Post-Pandemic Era

Niklas Benner, Felix Heuer, Rebecca Kamb and Eduard Storm
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Niklas Benner: RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research
Felix Heuer: RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research
Rebecca Kamb: RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research
Eduard Storm: Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), RWI

No 62, IHS Working Paper Series from Institute for Advanced Studies

Abstract: How do economic crises reshape firms’ skill demand through changes in the organization of work? Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a shock to workplace practices, this paper examines whether short-term disruptions prompt lasting shifts in job requirements. We draw on 11 million German online job vacancies from 2017–2024 and implement an event-study design that exploits pre-pandemic variation in workfrom- home feasibility across occupations. This approach identifies firms’ differential exposure to remote-work constraints based on the occupational mix of their job postings. We find that crisis-induced shifts in skill demand were mainly short-lived, but one adjustment persisted: a lasting rise in interactive requirements, reflecting the emergence of hybrid collaboration. This form of organizational change contrasts with the technology-driven automation emphasized in prior crises and was shaped mainly by structural factors —digital infrastructure, firm size, and sectoral exposure —rather than by cyclical variation. Our results show that temporary shocks can trigger selective and enduring shifts in firms’ skill demand through evolving workplace organization.

Keywords: Online Job Ads; Skill Demand; Work-from-Home Feasibility; COVID-19; Task Reallocation; Event Study (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J23 J24 J63 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 62 pages
Date: 2025-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma and nep-mac
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