The respective bargaining power of companies and employees can be seen from how fast earnings recover after a recession

We will look at exits from recession since the 1980s in the United States and the euro zone. We believe that an analysis of exits from recession allows us to measure the respective bargaining power of companies and employees. If companies' profitability, the profit margin, recovers rapidly, companies' bargaining power is strong, if it recovers slowly, employees' bargaining power is strong. We then see: In the United States, a rapid recovery in earnings after all recessions, a sign of strong corporate bargaining power; In the euro zone, in three out of five cases (since the 1980s), a delayed recovery in profits, which shows that companies have less bargaining power than in the United States.