Higher Pre-Pandemic Digitalisation Level Led to Less Short-Time Work in the 2020 Crisis
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Labour Market
Local labour markets with high levels of digital capital – i.e. computers and other information and communication technologies (ICT) – before the pandemic had significantly fewer employees having to be put on short-time working during the first eight months of the pandemic in Germany. One channel for the effect of digital capital is that it is essential for employees to work from home. This is the result of a recent study by ZEW Mannheim. Regions with little digital capital, on the other hand, were at a disadvantage: in areas that were among the bottom 20 percent of the digital capital distribution in Germany, the share of employees on short-time work schemes was up to 25 percent above average during the first lockdown.
