Temporary employment reduces productivity of technology and energy companies

Study published in the Journal of Productivity Analysis

2011-02-02

(Press-News.org) "Our study proves that one of the leading factors affecting progress in Spanish productivity is the high rate of temporary hiring among workers in highly technologically intense industries. These sectors are also those that most contribute to overall productivity growth (of all sectors) in the country's economy", Bienvenido Ortega, co-author of the study and a researcher at the UMA, tells SINC.

The 1984 overhaul of Spain's employment legislation led to the possibility of various forms of temporary contracting, and since further reforms in 1994, 1997 and 2001, the use of temporary contracts has only fallen marginally since 1995 in certain sectors.

"We agree that this type of contracting can have many positive effects, such as providing companies with the flexibility to adjust their workforce to reflect fluctuations in demand, helping companies to provide maternity or sickness cover, and encouraging entrepreneurs to open new businesses by reducing their fixed costs", says the researcher.

However, the study shows that the increase in temporary contracting has had a negative impact on productivity growth in Spain, and has generated greater instability in employment.

The temporary contracting ratio between temporary employment and total salaried employment stood at 34.6% in Spain in 2004, even rising to 47.2% in some autonomous regions, such as Andalusia. That year, the average ratio for the countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) stood at 13%.

"Spain's rate of temporary employment is three times higher than that in countries that are similar it in terms of the labour market culture and regulation, such as France and Italy", explains Ortega.

Use of temporary contracts loses value

"It is clear that business owners use temporary contracts as an employment adjustment mechanism, and that is why these kinds of contracts predominate over selection-based ones. Similarly, the increase in temporary contracting reduces the ability to invest in human capital or receive specific training within a company", warns Ortega.

The information obtained by this study shows that the increase in the rate of temporary contracts in the construction and services industries has not had any significant effect on productivity growth. However, in the energy and advanced manufacturing sectors there is a "clear" reduction in the rate of annual growth with regard to productivity.

"The high rate of temporary contracts can also encourage sectoral displacement to industries in which this form of employment is prevalent, to low productivity fields such as agriculture, construction and the hotel and catering trades, diverting investment to these. This is a further impediment to the development of high added value sectors", the researchers explain.

"We need an urgent reform of the labour market to achieve effective sectoral policies for increasing long-term contracting, at least in companies within these productive areas", the expert concludes.

INFORMATION:

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

'Negative democratic gap' serves as predictor for instability such as in Egypt, say Hebrew University researchers

2011-02-02

Jerusalem, February 1, 2011-- Research carried out at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem shows that it was possible already in 2008 to predict that countries such as Egypt and Iran were headed for dangerous periods of instability because of citizens' demands for democratization. The researchers were able to make this observation on the basis of a "democratic gap" scale of measurement between the level of freedom existing and the desire of citizens for more freedom, which was analyzed in about 90 countries around the world. In their research, Prof. Tamir Sheafer ...

Scientists make key step in the development of a norovirus treatment

2011-02-02

With the number of norovirus infection cases rising across the country, scientists from the University of Southampton have successfully crystallised a key norovirus enzyme, which could help in the development of a norovirus treatment. Noroviruses are recognised world-wide as the most important cause of epidemic nonbacterial gastroenteritis (stomach bugs) and pose a significant public health burden, with an estimated one million cases per year in the UK. In the past, noroviruses have also been called 'winter vomiting viruses'. By crystallising the key protease enzyme, ...

Maturitas publishes important position statements from European Menopause and Andropause Society

2011-02-02

Amsterdam, 1 February 2011 - Elsevier announced today the publication of two further important position statements from the European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) in the journal Maturitas (http://www.maturitas.org/ ) on common management problems in the post-reproductive health of women. EMAS is providing clear guidance in its position statements covering both hormone and non hormone therapy (HT) options as well as complementary and alternative therapies . The latest two position statements cover the management of the menopause in the context of Cardiovascular ...

The first mission to Mercury

2011-02-02

As the team of scientists behind NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft eagerly awaits the craft's entry into Mercury's orbit on 17 March, we could soon get answers to questions about the origin, composition, interior structure and geological history of this mysterious planet. Louise Prockter, deputy project scientist on the mission, writes exclusively in February's Physics World about the challenges the craft has been designed to face, the early successes of the mission and her own triumphant voyage over the past decade's work. A journey to Mercury faces once-thought insurmountable ...

What a ride! Researchers take molecules for a spin

2011-02-02

"This is no cartoon. It's a real molecule, with all the interactions taking place correctly," said Anatoly Kolomeisky as he showed an animation of atoms twisting and turning about a central hub like a carnival ride gone mad. Kolomeisky, a Rice University associate professor of chemistry, was offering a peek into a molecular midway where atoms dip, dive and soar according to a set of rules he is determined to decode. Kolomeisky and Rice graduate student Alexey Akimov have taken a large step toward defining the behavior of these molecular whirligigs with a new paper ...

Bilinguals find it easier to learn a third language

2011-02-02

The study also found that Russian speakers had a better grasp of Hebrew than Hebrew speakers themselves. "Learning a mother tongue and preserving it does not compromise the ability to learn an additional language. The opposite is true: Knowing Russian enforces Hebrew fluency and command of both languages increases skills in English," the researchers noted. Bilinguals find it easier to learn a third language, as they gain a better aptitude for languages, a new study from the University of Haifa reveals. Prof. Salim Abu-Rabia and Ekaterina Sanitsky of the Department of ...

Compound may prevent sickle cell pain crises

2011-02-02

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A new compound appears to prevent the traffic jam of cells that causes debilitating pain crises and associated mortality in sickle cell disease, Georgia Health Sciences University (formerly Medical College of Georgia) researchers report. The aptamer, developed by Archemix Corporation in Cambridge, Mass., appears to work by occupying sticky receptors lining the walls of small blood vessels where sickle-shaped red blood cells and white blood cells can pile up, according to the study published in Blood. The cell traffic jam occludes blood and oxygen flow, ...

Researchers test inhalable measles vaccine

2011-02-02

Sustained high vaccination coverage is key to preventing deaths from measles. Despite the availability of a vaccine, measles remains an important killer of children worldwide, particularly in less-developed regions where vaccination coverage is limited. A team of researchers, led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Colorado, developed and successfully tested a dry powder, live-attenuated measles vaccine that can be inhaled. The novel vaccine was studied in rhesus macaques. Results of the study are published in the January ...

Secret life of bees now a little less secret

2011-02-02

Many plants produce toxic chemicals to protect themselves against plant-eating animals, and many flowering plants have evolved flower structures that prevent pollinators such as bees from taking too much pollen. Now ecologists have produced experimental evidence that flowering plants might also use chemical defences to protect their pollen from some bees. The results are published next week in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology. In an elegant experiment, Claudio Sedivy and colleagues from ETH Zurich in Switzerland collected pollen from four plant ...

Taking unpleasant surprises out of cosmetic surgery

2011-02-02

For some plastic surgery patients, expectations are unrealistically high. Basing their hopes on the before-and-after albums offered in surgeons' offices, they expect to achieve a perfect body or to look just like a favorite celeb. But those albums only show how someone else's liposuction, breast augmentation, or Beyonce bum enhancement turned out. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher is developing software based on real clinical data to give patients a more accurate — and three-dimensional — before-and-after picture before the scalpel comes down. Tackling a very difficult ...

Temporary employment reduces productivity of technology and energy companies

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: