IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedgif/1415.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Expanding the Labor Market Lens: Two New Eurozone Labor Indicators

Author

Listed:

Abstract

We present a principal component analysis of euro area labor market conditions by combining information from 22 labor market indicators into two comprehensive series. These two novel indicators provide a systematic view of the current state and forward-looking direction of the euro-area labor market, respectively, and demonstrate superior forecasting performance compared to existing indicators. Crucially, we find significant implications for monetary policy design: a local projection analysis reveals that ECB monetary policy shocks have attenuated effects on both inflation and unemployment when the labor market forward-looking indicator is high. The dampened inflation response calls for tighter policy rate paths than a standard Taylor rule would prescribe. Finally, we show that focusing solely on the official unemployment rate may understate the actual labor market slack, and consequently, the trade-off between labor market health and inflationary dynamics.

Suggested Citation

  • Ece Fisgin & Joaquin Garcia-Cabo & Alex Haag & Mitch Lott, 2025. "Expanding the Labor Market Lens: Two New Eurozone Labor Indicators," International Finance Discussion Papers 1415, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgif:1415
    DOI: 10.17016/IFDP.2025.1415
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/ifdp/files/ifdp1415.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17016/IFDP.2025.1415?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. Erin E. Crust & Kevin J. Lansing & Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau, 2023. "Reducing Inflation along a Nonlinear Phillips Curve," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, vol. 2023(17), pages 1-5, July.
    2. Michelle L. Barnes & Ryan Chahrour & Giovanni P. Olivei & Gaoyan Tang, 2007. "A principal components approach to estimating labor market pressure and its implications for inflation," Public Policy Brief, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    3. Gianluca Benigno & Boris Hofmann & Galo Nuño Barrau & Damiano Sandri, 2024. "Quo vadis, r*? The natural rate of interest after the pandemic," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    4. Mark Gertler & Peter Karadi, 2015. "Monetary Policy Surprises, Credit Costs, and Economic Activity," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 44-76, January.
    5. Marek Jarociński & Peter Karadi, 2020. "Deconstructing Monetary Policy Surprises—The Role of Information Shocks," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 1-43, April.
    6. Thiago R.T. Ferreira & Nils Gornemann & Julio L. Ortiz, 2025. "Household Excess Savings and the Transmission of Monetary Policy," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 21(2), pages 1-36, April.
    7. A. W. Phillips, 1958. "The Relation Between Unemployment and the Rate of Change of Money Wage Rates in the United Kingdom, 1861–1957," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 25(100), pages 283-299, November.
    8. Brand, Claus & Lisack, Noëmie & Mazelis, Falk, 2025. "Natural rate estimates for the euro area: insights, uncertainties and shortcomings," Economic Bulletin Boxes, European Central Bank, vol. 1.
    9. Ferreira, Thiago R.T. & Shousha, Samer, 2023. "Determinants of global neutral interest rates," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    10. García-Cabo, Joaquín & Lipińska, Anna & Navarro, Gastón, 2023. "Sectoral shocks, reallocation, and labor market policies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    11. Campolmi, Alessia & Gnocchi, Stefano, 2016. "Labor market participation, unemployment and monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 17-29.
    12. Òscar Jordà, 2005. "Estimation and Inference of Impulse Responses by Local Projections," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 161-182, March.
    13. Craig S. Hakkio & Jonathan L. Willis, 2013. "Assessing labor market conditions: the level of activity and the speed of improvement," Macro Bulletin, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, issue july18, pages 1-2, July.
    14. Martin Harding & Mathias Klein, 2022. "Monetary policy and household net worth," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 44, pages 125-151, April.
    15. Troy Gilchrist & Bart Hobijn, 2021. "The Divergent Signals about Labor Market Slack," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, vol. 2021(15), pages 01-06, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Nickel, Christiane & Kilponen, Juha & Moral-Benito, Enrique & Koester, Gerrit & Ciccarelli, Matteo & Enders, Almira & Holton, Sarah & Landau, Bettina & Venditti, Fabrizio & Bobeica, Elena & Brand, Cla, 2025. "A strategic view on the economic and inflation environment in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 371, European Central Bank.
    2. Kerstin Bernoth, 2025. "Dovish Coos or Hawkish Screech? From Central Bank Talk to Economic Walk," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2137, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Bernardino Adão & Sandra Gomes & Laura Alpizar, 2025. "On how to assess the impact of monetary policy," Economic Bulletin and Financial Stability Report Articles and Banco de Portugal Economic Studies, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    4. Kaufmann, Christoph & Leyva, Jaime & Storz, Manuela, 2024. "Insurance corporations’ balance sheets, financial stability and monetary policy," Working Paper Series 2892, European Central Bank.
    5. Michael D. Bauer & Eric T. Swanson, 2023. "A Reassessment of Monetary Policy Surprises and High-Frequency Identification," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(1), pages 87-155.
    6. Fabian Eser & Peter Karadi & Philip R. Lane & Laura Moretti & Chiara Osbat, 2020. "The Phillips Curve at the ECB," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(S1), pages 50-85, September.
    7. Lee, Sukjoon, 2020. "Liquidity Premium, Credit Costs, and Optimal Monetary Policy," MPRA Paper 104825, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Bu, Chunya & Rogers, John & Wu, Wenbin, 2021. "A unified measure of Fed monetary policy shocks," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 331-349.
    9. F. Boissay & F. Collard & C. Manea & A. Shapiro, 2025. "Monetary Tightening and Financial Stress During Supply- versus Demand-Driven Inflation," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 21(2), pages 147-220, April.
    10. Andrade, Philippe & Ferroni, Filippo, 2021. "Delphic and odyssean monetary policy shocks: Evidence from the euro area," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 816-832.
    11. Boissay, Frederic & Collard, Fabrice & Manea, Cristina & Shapiro, Adam, 2023. "Monetary Tightening, Inflation Drivers and Financial Stress," CEPR Discussion Papers 18694, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Ilzetzki, Ethan & Jin, Keyu, 2021. "The puzzling change in the international transmission of U.S. macroeconomic policy shocks," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    13. Dias, Daniel A. & Duarte, João B., 2015. "Monetary Policy and Homeownership: Empirical Evidence, Theory, and Policy Implications," MPRA Paper 112252, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Mar 2021.
    14. Anna Samarina & Anh D.M. Nguyen, 2024. "Does Monetary Policy Affect Income Inequality in the Euro Area?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 56(1), pages 35-80, February.
    15. Bats, Joost V. & Giuliodori, Massimo & Houben, Aerdt C.F.J., 2023. "Monetary policy effects in times of negative interest rates: What do bank stock prices tell us?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    16. Wenting Liao & Jun Ma & Chengsi Zhang, 2023. "Identifying exchange rate effects and spillovers of US monetary policy shocks in the presence of time‐varying instrument relevance," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(7), pages 989-1006, November.
    17. Anna Samarina & Anh D.M. Nguyen, 2019. "Does monetary policy affect income inequality in the euro area?," Bank of Lithuania Working Paper Series 61, Bank of Lithuania.
    18. Geiger, Martin & Güntner, Jochen, 2024. "The chronology of Brexit and UK monetary policy," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    19. Barnichon, Régis & Shapiro, Adam Hale, 2024. "Phillips meets Beveridge," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(S).
    20. Klein, Mathias & Zhang, Xin, 2025. "The Inflationary Effects of Quantitative Easing," Working Paper Series 447, Sveriges Riksbank (Central Bank of Sweden).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • E27 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:fedgif:1415. 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: Ryan Wolfslayer ; Keisha Fournillier (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbgvus.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.