IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedcec/88958.html

Short-Time Compensation: An Alternative to Layoffs during COVID-19

Author

Listed:
  • Pawel Krolikowski
  • Anna Weixel

Abstract

We discuss the costs and benefits of short-time compensation (STC), an unemployment insurance program that allows workers with temporarily reduced hours to receive some unemployment insurance benefits. We describe the provisions for STC in the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 and the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and report the utilization of STC before and after these acts. The number of states with STC programs has remained unchanged at 27 since the beginning of the pandemic, but STC utilization has recently risen to unprecedented levels, driven largely by increases in Michigan and Washington. However, these increases are small relative to increases in Germany’s popular Kurzarbeit program, suggesting that the United States’ STC program may still have scope for expansion.

Suggested Citation

  • Pawel Krolikowski & Anna Weixel, 2020. "Short-Time Compensation: An Alternative to Layoffs during COVID-19," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, vol. 2020(26), pages 1-6, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcec:88958
    DOI: 10.26509/frbc-ec-202026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.26509/frbc-ec-202026
    File Function: Full Text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.26509/frbc-ec-202026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tito Boeri & Herbert Bruecker, 2011. "Short-time work benefits revisited: some lessons from the Great Recession [‘Reversed roles? Wage and employment effects of the current crisis’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 26(68), pages 697-765.
    2. Katharine G. Abraham & Susan G. Houseman, 2014. "Proposal 12: Encouraging Work Sharing to Reduce Unemploymemnt," Book chapters authored by Upjohn Institute researchers, in: Melissa S. Kearney & Benjamin H. Harris (ed.),Policies to Address Poverty in America, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Herzog-Stein, Alexander & Nüß, Patrick & Peede, Lennert & Stein, Ulrike, 2022. "Germany and the United States in coronavirus distress: internal versus external labour market flexibility," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 56, pages 1-11.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marlon R. Tracey & Solomon W. Polachek, 2020. "Heterogeneous Layoff Effects of the US Short‐Time Compensation Program," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 34(4), pages 399-426, December.
    2. Lucifora, Claudio & Origo, Federica, 2025. "Rigid yet resilient: Firms’ margins of adjustment to demand shocks in regulated labour markets," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    3. Konle-Seidl, Regina, 2020. "Short-time Work in Europe: Rescue in the Current COVID-19 Crisis?," IAB-Forschungsbericht 202004_en, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    4. Werner Hölzl & Michael Böheim & Klaus Friesenbichler & Agnes Kügler & Thomas Leoni, 2021. "Staatliche Hilfsmaßnahmen für Unternehmen in der COVID-19-Krise. Eine begleitende Analyse operativer Aspekte und Unternehmenseinschätzungen," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 66624, June.
    5. Reamonn Lydon & Thomas Y. Mathä & Stephen Millard, 2019. "Short-time work in the Great Recession: firm-level evidence from 20 EU countries," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-29, December.
    6. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2016-005 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Baumgarten, Daniel & Kvasnicka, Michael, 2017. "Temporary agency work and the Great Recession," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 29-44.
    8. Britta Gehrke & Brigitte Hochmuth, 2021. "Counteracting Unemployment in Crises: Non‐Linear Effects of Short‐Time Work Policy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 123(1), pages 144-183, January.
    9. Michael Christl & Silvia Poli & Tine Hufkens & Andreas Peichl & Mattia Ricci, 2023. "The role of short-time work and discretionary policy measures in mitigating the effects of the COVID-19 crisis in Germany," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(4), pages 1107-1136, August.
    10. Florentino Felgueroso & Marcel Jansen, 2020. "Una valoraciónde los ERTEpara hacer frente a la crisis del COVID-19 en basea la evidencia empírica y desde una perspectiva comparada," Policy Papers 2020-06, FEDEA.
    11. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/4urlmja10p80kqireg3ejlnogi is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Kruppe, Thomas & Scholz, Theresa, 2014. "Labour hoarding in Germany : employment effects of short-time work during the crises," IAB-Discussion Paper 201417, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    13. Diaz, Antonia & Dolado, Juan J. & Jáñez, Álvaro & Wellschmied, Felix, 2025. "Labor reallocation effects of furlough schemes: Evidence from two recessions in Spain," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    14. repec:iab:iabfob:202004(de is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Tito Boeri & Juan F. Jimeno, 2015. "The unbearable divergence of unemployment in europe," Working Papers 1534, Banco de España.
    16. Michal Moszynski, 2016. "Institutional conditioning of the German labour market in the face of the global economic crisis 2008–2009," Ekonomia i Prawo, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 15(3), pages 371-383, September.
    17. Alipour, Jean-Victor & Fadinger, Harald & Schymik, Jan, 2021. "My home is my castle – The benefits of working from home during a pandemic crisis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    18. Kopp, Daniel, 2024. "Do Recruiters Penalize Men Who Prefer Low Hours? Evidence from Online Labor Market Data," IZA Discussion Papers 16845, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Fabian Bornhorst & Mr. Ashoka Mody, 2012. "Tests of German Resilience," IMF Working Papers 2012/239, International Monetary Fund.
    20. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/68ufmnnh3j9vmblf03huqt18qe is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Gehrke, Britta & Lechthaler, Wolfgang & Merkl, Christian, 2019. "The German labor market during the Great Recession: Shocks and institutions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 192-208.
    22. Cahuc, Pierre, 2024. "The Micro and Macro Economics of Short-Time Work," CEPR Discussion Papers 19429, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    23. Ulf Rinne & Klaus Zimmermann, 2012. "Another economic miracle? The German labor market and the Great Recession," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-21, December.
    24. Cardullo, Gabriele & Conti, Maurizio & Sulis, Giovanni, 2020. "A model of unions, two-tier bargaining and capital investment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fip:fedcec:88958. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: 4D Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbclus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.