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Informal work, defined as work performed without a formal contract, lowers productivity, reduces tax revenue and hampers economic growth. Reducing informal work is a policy objective in developed and developing countries alike. Yet, particularly since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, most socio-economic policy reforms across Europe have reduced the generosity of unemployment benefit schemes and deregulated employment protection. The authors argue that, while such reforms may have contributed to reducing unemployment, they might also have increased the incidence of informal work. Using European Social Survey data for 2004-12, they find that labour protection is effective in reducing informal wage employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows how both segregation by sex and segregation by hours shape the occupational space of part-time workers. The level of segregation by sex varies according to the shares of full-time and part-time work in total employment, and the trade-off between increasing the volume of female employment and decreasing segregation by sex is much stronger for full-time work. The author argues that there is less segregation by sex in part-time work than in full-time work, and that it is the gap between the volume of male and female part-time employment that determines the effect of part-time work on segregation in total employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we employ a wage-setting approach to analyze the labor market effects of immigration into Germany from 1980 to 2004. This enables us to consider labor market rigidities, which are prevalent in Europe. We find that the elasticity of the wage-setting curve is particularly high for young workers. Moreover, natives and foreigners are imperfect substitutes. The wage and employment effects of immigration depend on the skill structure of the immigrant workforce. Because the foreign labor supply shift has mainly affected the high-skilled labor market segment, the 4 percent increase of the workforce through immigration has not increased either aggregate or foreign unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two of the most notable trends in labour markets in Europe are the rise in the number of atypical job contracts (e.g. fixed-term contracts and temporary work) and the increase in job turnover. The concept of 'employment vulnerability' can be used to describe these trends, which weaken the employer-employee relationship. In this article, the authors measure this employment vulnerability, for individual European countries, by creating two indices - an 'employer-related vulnerability index' and a 'job-related vulnerability index' - which are then aggregated to form an overall employment vulnerability index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines female part-time employment in 23 European countries, distinguishing between 'short' and 'long' part-time employment. The short form, defined as less than 20 hours per week, is associated with the youngest and oldest age groups, slight disability, a higher number of children, lower skill levels, and employment in community, social and personal services. Although the incidence of part-time employment varies considerably across countries, long part-time employment is generally more widespread than short part-time employment, albeit with matching cross-country variations in the incidence of the two types. This suggests that they are complementary, rather than substitutes for one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European countries currently have segmented labour markets with flexible but insecure -'flexirisky' - jobs, resulting in significant inequality between different categories of workers. Part-time jobs are one example: their flexibility may help workers reconcile work and family life, and increase women's labour force participation, but part-time employment can also result in new forms of inequality, thereby undermining EU equal opportunity policies. Empirically analysing labour market transitions in Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, this article shows part-timers - who are mostly women - to be at higher risk of unemployment. It calls for strengthening equality between part-time and full-time workers in terms of employment stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors provide new evidence on youth earnings and labour market volatility, including flows into and out of employment, across Europe during the Great Recession. EU‐SILC data for the period 2004–13 reveal large disparities in volatility levels and trends across European countries. As expected, the Great Recession increased youth labour market volatility, offsetting the trends observed over the previous years of economic prosperity. A variance decomposition exercise points to greater exposure to worker turnover in southern Europe. Fixed effects regression on labour market institutions relates higher unemployment benefits and more stringent employment protection legislation to lower earnings and labour market volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors use an original cross-sectional data set to examine the impact of informal and flexible contractual arrangements on the wages of domestic workers hired by private employers in Portugal. OLS estimations suggest that formality benefits workers, whether they have a stable or a flexible contract. However, social and labour market processes help to shape and maintain inequality, especially for migrant workers. Although skills are undervalued and do not generate rewards, higher wages are identified for workers who are engaged in contingent work, work for multiple employers or provide care for the elderly. However, such workers are still subject to exploitation and insecurity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job polarization instead of pure upgrading is emerging in European industries. This article focuses on polarization of the employment structure and contributes empirical evidence to explain patterns of occupational change in relation to four major groups: managers, clerks, craft workers and manual workers. Building on the structural approach, the author aims to analyse employment dynamics at the sectoral level and shed light on job polarization trends in Europe. Job polarization clearly emerges, mainly in service sectors, and in some European countries it is leading to a rejection of the hypothesis of skill upgrading sustained by the skill-biased technical change paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last three decades, most developed countries have experienced increasing income inequality. Using Danish register data from 1992 to 2007 for all private-sector employees, we confirm that income inequality has increased in Denmark. We also observe an increase in the relative employment of highly educated individuals, as well as differential income growth rates across employee subgroups where, in particular, managers experienced significant real income progression. We use an equilibrium search framework with on-the-job search to study the interplay between skill-upgrading, management compensation, and income inequality. In this model we can determine the management and education premia. We can also show that when our model is exposed to skill-upgrading, it is capable of producing income dynamics similar to those observed in the Danish income distribution. ( JEL J3, J6, M5) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

. Since the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, a further 8 million Europeans have become unemployed. And prolonged recession entails other risks examined here, in terms of labour market exclusion, the economic costs of long-term unemployment, and the extent to which enterprises' job-creating investment potential may become severely constrained. Against this background, the author critically reviews the European policy response with particular attention to the shift to fiscal consolidation since mid-2010 and its long-term implications for Europe's economies, labour markets and societies. Introducing the studies featured in this Special Issue, he draws on their empirical findings to discuss policy options for a reversal of current trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

. Since the 1970s, Europe has been plagued by a chronic unemployment crisis, which has escalated with the current Great Recession. The author discusses a number of relevant elements in this regard, including the extent to which social dialogue and social pacts have been successful in reforming labour markets and pension systems, the effect of active labour market policies and the characteristics of 'resilient' economies. She concludes with the need to rethink social dialogue, social safety nets, the granting of loans - especially to SMEs - and the coordination of macroeconomic policies to increase labour demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses a cognitive test score, the Swedish Military Enlistment test taken at age 18, to identify whether the ethnic employment and income gap in Sweden is caused by a pre-market skill gap and/or ethnic discrimination. The employment gap and income gap are estimated for males born in Sweden with different ethnic backgrounds: their parents were born in Sweden or in southern Europe or outside Europe. Controlling for the cognitive test score does not affect the ethnic employment gap, and for incomes the ethnic income gap almost disappears. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"National employment models" comprise the whole range of institutions that determine labour supply, utilization and demand in different countries. Based on a study of existing typologies of these models, this article explores their workings and their capacity to survive pressures for change. It compares different models' attempts to safeguard decent working conditions in the face of product-market deregulation and rising employment rates of women and older workers. It concludes that it is becoming increasingly difficult for European nation states to reform their employment models from within and argues for more emphasis on positive integration policies at the European level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article outlines various explanations for singling out the right to work from the roster of human rights, and emphasizes the dilemmas associated with regulating the labour market as a barrier to the development of the right. It compares two frameworks that address these concerns from the contrasted perspectives of human rights and employment policy - namely, the General Comment of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the European Employment Strategy. While these approaches are not natural allies, they can complement each other and construct an institutional system guided by the right to work as a superordinate norm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows that state control of some industries may have contributed to the increase in European unemployment from the 1970s to the early 1990s. We develop a simple two-sector model, one privately run and one publicly run, that has risk-averse workers directing their search into one of the sectors. Assuming that the privately run sector is less able to insure its employees against uncertainty, we show that aggregate unemployment in this economy increases in response to an increase in economic turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the issue of youth labor market disadvantage in south east Europe. It is noted that the lack of decent work opportunities for young people is indeed one of the most daunting challenges faced by countries in the said subregion. A troubled entry into the world of work has serious welfare repercussions for young people, including a higher risk of income poverty and deterioration of their human and social capital. Yet there has so far been no comprehensive analysis of the problems that young people face in south east European labor markets, largely because the necessary data are simply not available from any integrated, centralized sources.