2. Introduction
• The post-war economic boom brought about
nearly full employment across most of
Western Europe
• However the oil crisis, socio-economic
restructuring, and globalization have
provoked a radical change in the panorama
– Greater participation of women in the labour market...
– But a significant rise in the levels of structural
unemployment
• In the 1990s measures have been adopted to
flexibilize labour markets:
– Unemployment has decreased...
– But social polarization has increased
3. The process of socio-
economic restructuring
• Collapse of the (Fordist) system of mass
production
– Demise of the three pillars of the post-war consensus:
full employment, prosperity, and social citizenship
• Rise in unemployment levels
– From unemployment rates below 5% (bar Ireland and
Italy), before 1975
– To 23% in Spain, 20% in Finland, and Ireland
– By the mid-1990s the main economies in the EU (bar
the UK) had unemployment rates in excess of 10%
• Unemployment rates as a European
phenomenon:
– Much lower unemployment rates in the US and Japan
5. Unemployment (II)
• Regional unemployment differences are
even greater:
– Unemployment in excess of 20% in Southern
Italy, Southern and Western Spain, and the
former East Germany
– High rates in many old industrial regions of
Northern France, Belgium, and West Germany
– Low unemployment in the peripheries of large
urban regions...
– And in many intermediate regions
7. The problems of structural
unemployment
• Having a large percentage of the population
willing to work idle represents a waste for
any economy
– Especially since often the unemployed tend to be
younger and better prepared than those employed
• Social exclusion
– Large sections of the population are excluded from
the labour force
– Increase in long-term unemployment rates
• Serious financial problems for the state
– Expansion of unemployment benefits
– Unemployment benefits disguised as other benefits
in certain countries (Italy and the Netherlands)
8. Long-term unemployment
• Long-term unemployment is positively
linked to total unemployment
– Highest long-term unemployment in the poorest
regions of Spain, Greece, and the South of
Italy...
– But also in West Germany and Belgium
– Lowest long-term unemployment in the UK and
Scandinavia
• And negatively linked to total
employment levels
10. Unemployment in social
expenditure
Unemployment expenditure as a
percentage of total social expenditure
Evolution of unemployment
expenditure at constant prices.
1990=100
1997 1993 1980 1997 1993 1980
EU 12 7.2 9.1 - 135.8 158.1 -
Austria 5.3 5.4 2.0 149.1 140.2 34.7
Finland 13.0 15.6 4.3 274.1 314.1 40.5
France 7.5 8.8 - 115.1 124.6 59.6
Germany 8.7 10.2 3.7 224.1 240.2 53.3
Ireland 15.0 16.2 - 157.4 141.9 47.0
Italy 1.8 2.2 - 127.2 149.2 79.0
Netherlands 10.5 8.8 - 140.7 117.3 58.0
Spain 13.8 21.1 15.4 96.5 150.4 55.7
11. Measures to combat high
unemployment
• Main aim: to make European labour markets
more flexible
• Meaning of flexibility: making employees more
disposable:
– Easier and cheaper to dismiss
– Less covered by constraining agreements and regulations
over conditions
– Less health, safety, and security offered to workers
• Two interpretations of flexibility:
– Outright labour market deregulation: In the UK
– The reform of labour market laws and of the welfare
state: Netherlands, followed by Continental Europe
• Combination of restrictive measures with greater worker training
12. The impact of labour
market reform
• Reduction of unemployment
– Britain and the Netherlands (the early adopters) have
enjoyed lower unemployment rates
– Spectacular effect in Spain. Between the introduction of
labour market flexibility in 1996/97 and 2000, Spain has
created half of all the new jobs in the EU.
Unemployment came down from 22 to 14%
– Reduction of unemployment in Germany and France
– Reduction even in the countries more reluctant to
introduce flexibility measures: Belgium and Italy
• But the timing of the reforms has coincided with
a period of economic expansion
– And in the past economic growth has been associated
with job creation
13. The informal economy
Average
1989/90
Average
1999/00
Increase
1990-2000
Austria 6.9 9.8 2.9
Belgium 19.3 22.2 2.9
Denmark 10.8 18.0 7.2
Germany 11.8 16.0 4.2
Greece 22.6 28.7 6.1
Finland 13.4 18.1 4.7
France 9.0 15.2 6.2
Ireland 11.0 15.9 4.9
Italy 22.8 27.1 4.3
Netherlands 11.9 13.1 1.2
Portugal 15.9 22.7 6.8
Spain 16.1 22.7 6.6
Sweden 15.8 19.2 3.4
UK 9.6 12.7 3.1
US 6.7 8.7 2.0
Japan 8.8 11.2 2.4
Source: Schneider (2001)
14. The impact of labour
market reform (ii)
• The concentration of atypical employment forms
among women, the young, the elderly, ethnic
minorities, and immigrants and the less skilled is
contributing to the segmentation of society:
– The ‘A-team’: Highly qualified stable wage-earners
– The ‘B-team’: An underclass of unstable and precarious
workers (MacJobs)
• According to some (Harvey, 2000) this represents
a return to the period prior to the mid-century
compromise
– ‘Proletarianization’ of the labour force
– Employer having increasing control to the detriment of
workers rights and stability
15. Conclusion
• Europe seems to be stuck between a rock
(unemployment) and a hard place
(atypical work)
• Unemployment has decreased as a result
of the flexibilization of labour markets...
• But, inequalities have increased
– Managerial and executive wages have been
rising at a greater rate than those of stable
employees
– And the gap between stable employees and those
in precarious employment has also been
widening