Suchergebnisse

The objective of this paper is to study the long term effects of public policy measures for displaced workers. Our focus is on the individuals affected by the cutbacks at the LKAB iron ore mines in northern Sweden in 1983 and the closure of the Uddevalla Shipyard in western Sweden in 1985. These workers not only experienced job loss, but were also the target group for extraordinary labour market policies. Using register data from Statistics Sweden (labour market status, earnings, education etc.), we follow those affected until 1999. We compare this with the corresponding development of a large sample other workers who lost their jobs because of plant closures in 1987–88 but who did not receive extraordinary measures. Estimations of the net effect of the extraordinary measures find that they did have positive long-term effects for the displaced shipyard workers and miners. They have higher employment, not higher unemployment, and higher earnings than the comparison group.

This article analyses the drivers of and barriers to service employment growth and reviews available policy options. Commending development of the industry-service nexus, skills, and facilitation of female employment, the authors also suggest measures to support labour mobility and to enhance the tradability of services within the single European market, which may stir controversy among trade unionists.

"Dieser Artikel analysiert die Katalysatoren und Hemmschuhe des Beschäftigungswachstums im Dienstleistungssektor und prüft die bestehenden politischen Optionen. Während die Autoren den Trend zur Vernetzung von Industrie und Dienstleistungen und die besseren Beschäftigungsmöglichkeiten für Frauen begrüßen, fordern sie ebenfalls mehr Mobilität der Arbeitskräfte: eine durchaus kontroverse Forderung für viele Gewerkschafterinnen und Gewerkschafter." (Autorenreferat)

The issue addressed in this paper is how to obtain a composite measure of several indicators using benchmarking principles. While the exposition is only in two dimensions, and thus can be presented graphically, this is sufficient to capture the essence of the methodology and provide the basis for a critical examination of the assumptions. The data used is labour market statistics for the Member States of the European Union. The proposed approach comes from a technique originally used in production theory, namely efficiency frontiers. Here, however, we benchmark not efficiency but performance. There are two main problems. First, related to composite measures, how does one compare (weigh) indicators that are not obviously comparable? Second, related to benchmarking, how does one benchmark countries that may differ considerably as regards the mix of the various indicators. Both these issues concern weights and require that the weighting system should be parsimonious as regards assumptions and flexible, in that not all countries should necessarily be awarded the same weights. ; In der Analyse wird gezeigt, wie ein Gesamtindikator aus Einzelindikatoren konzipiert werden kann, die auf der Basis von Benchmarking-Kriterien entwickelt worden sind. Obwohl sich der Ansatz auf (nur) zwei Parameter beschränkt - und er so graphisch darstellbar wird - ist dies ausreichend, um den Kern des methodischen Ansatzes erfassen und kritisch überprüfen zu können. Die verwendeten Daten sind Arbeitsmarktstatistiken der EU-Mitgliedstaaten. Der vorgeschlagene Ansatz wurde ursprünglich in der Produktionstheorie verwendet, insbesondere zur Ermittlung der 'vordersten Effizienzgrenze' (frontier). In der vorliegenden Analyse wird allerdings nicht die Effizienz, sondern die Leistung (performance) gemessen. Es stellen sich hauptsächlich zwei Probleme. Das erste Problem hängt mit dem Charakter von Gesamtindikatoren zusammen: Wie sollen Indikatoren gewichtet und verglichen werden, die nicht auf den ersten Blick vergleichbar sind? Das zweite Problem bezieht sich auf das Benchmarking: Wie können sehr unterschiedliche Länder durch einen Mix sehr unterschiedlicher Indikatoren vergleichend gemessen werden? Beide Aspekte beziehen sich auf Gewichtungsprobleme und erfordern, in den Gewichtungsprozeß möglichst wenige (normative) Annahmen einfließen zu lassen und das 'Gewichtungssystem' so flexibel zu konzipieren, daß nicht allen Ländern automatisch das gleiche Gewicht zugemessen wird.

Contingent Employment in Europe and the United States examines the developments in labour markets in advanced economies in the 21st century, as regards contingent employment. This is defined as employment relationships that can be terminated with minimal costs within a predetermined period of time. This includes fixed-term contracts, temporary agency work and self-employment. Contingent employment has been the subject of much legislative activity in the last decade, at both the national and European level. Temporary agency work, in particular, has recently been extensively deregulated in most European countries and currently we await the fate of a proposed EU directive on agency work. The book is therefore highly topical

This report examines recent trends and aspects of the labour market situation in relation to non-standard work. The findings show that while both temporary contracts and self-employment grew – quite considerably in some Member States – during the long economic boom from the mid-1990s up to the onset of the recession in 2007, there has not been an increase in the level of non-standard employment over the past few years – with the exception of part-time work. The report includes a specific focus on work mediated by digital platforms, which has been viewed as an emerging challenge.

"During the 1990s, temporary agency work has increased rapidly in most OECD countries. We augment the equilibrium unemployment model developed by Pissarides and Mortensen with temporary work agencies. Our model implies that technological improvements for placements and de-regulation of the sector caused the emergence and growth of temporary agency work. Simulations of a calibrated version of the model show that 'temp' work does not necessarily crowd out other, 'regular' jobs." (author's abstract)

"The issue addressed in this paper is how to obtain a composite measure of several indicators using benchmarking principles. While the exposition is only in two dimensions, and thus can be presented graphically, this is sufficient to capture the essence of the methodology and provide the basis for a critical examination of the assumptions. The data used is labour market statistics for the Member States of the European Union. The proposed approach comes from a technique originally used in production theory, namely efficiency frontiers. Here, however, we benchmark not efficiency but performance. There are two main problems. First, related to composite measures, how does one compare (weigh) indicators that are not obviously comparable? Second, related to benchmarking, how does one benchmark countries that may differ considerably as regards the mix of the various indicators. Both these issues concern weights and require that the weighting system should be parsimonious as regards assumptions and flexible, in that not all countries should necessarily be awarded the same weights. First we show how to construct the benchmark. It is constructed assuming only that the weights are positive, that we cannot discriminate between countries that are best in any single dimension and that a linear combination of these best performers is feasible, and also on the frontier. When benchmarking several indicators we arrive, not at a mark, but a frontier. The performance frontier is a multi-dimensional benchmark. Next we show how to measure the distance of other countries from the performance frontier. This requires the assigning of weights. The weights are determined by the location of a particular country to a particular segment of the frontier. The countries off the frontier are weighted in accordance with the weights of the countries on the frontier that have a similar mix of indicators. The essence of the method is presented by constructing a composite index of the unemployment and employment rates of the member states in 1999. We then present an example in three dimensions using various measures of unemployment. Finally, we extend the cross-sectional approach, i.e. the member states for a single year, to the construction of a pooled cross-sectional time series performance frontier. The pooled frontier is made up of the best performance of the best of countries at the best of times. In the final section we summarise the merits of this approach and comment on some possible criticisms." (author's abstract)