Immigrants’ employment and the business cycle in Spain: taking account of gender and origin

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical overview of the relationship between the business cycle and the immigrant employment cycle in Spain, differentiating by gender and origin, during the period 1999–2017. The study focuses on three main goals. First, we identify and compare the phases and the main features of the female and male immigrant employment cycles and the business cycle by means of their turning points. This target also includes the analysis of the differences in the cyclical pattern between immigrants’ and natives’ employment. Second, we wonder to what extent the global financial crisis initiated in the middle of 2007 modified the cyclical fluctuations of immigrants’ employment and whether female and male employment presents significant differences. Finally, we study whether immigrants’ origin plays some role in employment fluctuations during the pre- and crisis periods. We find that in the Spanish economic upturns, the labour market is more prone to create immigrant males’ employment than females’, while in the downturns females’ employment shows more resilience. With regard to the natives, immigrants remain unemployed longer in downturns and are laid off before the economy reaches its peak. However, a stronger gain of immigrants’ employment appears to be present in periods of expansion and a weaker loss in periods of contraction. In the contraction periods, immigrant females present the highest chances of keeping their employment.