Employment and well-being after plant closure: Survey evidence from Switzerland on the mid and long run

Daniel Oesch, Fiona Köster, Matthias Studer and Isabel Baumann
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Daniel Oesch: Centre LIVES, University of Lausanne, Switzerland; FORS, Lausanne, Switzerland
Fiona Köster: Centre LIVES, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Matthias Studer: Centre LIVES, University of Geneva, Switzerland
Isabel Baumann: ZHAW, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland

Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2024, vol. 45, issue 4, 964-986

Abstract: How does plant closure affect the employment and well-being of displaced workers? This article presents the results of two surveys of workers at five manufacturing plants two and 11 years after mass layoffs. After two years, two-thirds of displaced workers had been re-employed, one in five workers was still unemployed, and one in 10 workers had retired. A decade after the plant closures, unemployment had fallen below 5%. Overall, post-displacement outcomes in Switzerland were more favourable than in other European plant closures. However, age disparities loomed large. Older workers struggled to find new jobs and often had to accept large wage cuts and unstable jobs. In particular, many workers in their late forties and early fifties were hit hard as they were too young to benefit from early retirement, but too old to start over.

Keywords: Industrial workers; life satisfaction; mass redundancy; unemployment; wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ecoind:v:45:y:2024:i:4:p:964-986

DOI: 10.1177/0143831X231209825

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