Holding on: labour hoarding and firms’ expectations

Katalin Bodnár, Vasco Botelho, Laura Lebastard and Marco Weißler

Economic Bulletin Boxes, 2026, vol. 8

Abstract: Firms that have faced adverse shocks to their business activity can decide to either shed labour or hold on to their workforce, i.e. “hoard labour”. This choice can be related to expectations about the future business outlook, prices and costs. Evidence suggests that there is a clear link, in particular, between recent labour hoarding decisions taken by firms and their labour cost growth expectations. With regard to the outlook for pricing, firms that have experienced a deterioration in their overall business conditions are also less optimistic about increasing their selling prices. JEL Classification: J23, J31, J63, D84

Keywords: employment; expectations; labour costs; labour hoarding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-01
Note: 2881411
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