On the Asymmetric Volatility of Employment Outflows

Recent research into job flow dynamics highlights the asymmetry in aggregate employment adjustment. This has implications for patterns of worker flow adjustment. This paper draws upon modelling strategies developed in the applied finance literature to characterize the asymmetry of aggregate employment outflow volatility. It is found that higher employment outflow volatility is associated with negative shocks, when the outflow is lower than expected. This, it is suggested, could be associated with the dynamic processes linking the hiring and turnover of workers