The research project on Occupational transitions after plant closure in Switzerland’s manufacturing sector examines how workers overcome this critical life course event. The principal aim is to investigate whether workers find a new job, in which sector and occupation they are reemployed, whether they experience wages losses and whether their social life or psychological well-being is affected. The success of the transition into reemployment seems to depend on workers’ socio-demographic characteristics such as education, occupation or age. The project therefore strives to understand who the most vulnerable individuals are.
The Plant Closure Survey 2011 is an individual-level survey of about 1200 workers. It was conducted in Autumn 2011 at the Research Center for Life Course and Inequality (LINES) at University of Lausanne, Switzerland, within the National Competence Center of Research LIVES and with the financial support of the State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO).
