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This article examines hierarchies of recent intra-EU migrants from EU-West (EU15) and EU-East (New Member States 13) countries in Western European labour markets. We use data from the European Labour Force Survey 2014 special module on migrants and their descendants to analyse how different skill levels, reasons for migration and, concurrently, different job-search strategies shape hierarchies in labour market outcomes as captured by wages and occupational status. Our analyses reveal that recent EU-West migrants have jobs with higher wages and higher occupational status than recent EU-East migrants. The former are more likely to be highly skilled and more often had already found employment before migrating through job ads or direct employer contacts. EU-East migrants, by contrast, are more often medium skilled and found employment after migrating by using social networks. Different skill levels, migration motives and job-finding methods account for differences in wages and occupational status between the two groups. However, even when all of these factors – as well as individual and labour market factors – are controlled for in the regression analyses, labour market hierarchies remain significant, indirectly indicating discrimination. Overall, our results show that free labour mobility creates new hierarchies between mobile EU-West and EU-East workers in Western Europe.

This paper serves as the introduction for a special issue investigating the current status of the new EU mobility regime close to 20 years after the first eastward enlargement. Our main claim is that EU labour mobility is shaped by and has created multiple hierarchies across the EU and within EU countries, as is evident in the unequal labour market outcomes of different groups of mobile EU workers. The EU migration regime has grown more complex and diversified over the years, but underneath this complexity remain strong hierarchies that structure the patterns and consequences of mobility. We therefore propose the concept of ‘hierarchized mobility’ to grasp the complex yet unequal mobility opportunities of workers within the EU. Moreover, we argue that to understand this hierarchised mobility, both socio-economic factors and regulation should be studied. On the one hand, enduring hierarchies between national labour markets shape EU labour mobility and transform these hierarchies into hierarchies within national labour markets. On the other hand, both national and EU policies regulate and shape mobility and the hierarchies it creates. The interaction between EU rules that shape different categories of mobile workers and national social and labour market regulation can counteract or reinforce the trend towards hierarchised mobility.

The COVID lockdowns were characterised by new forms of governmentality as lives were disrupted and controlled through the vertical transmission of biopolitics by the state. The paper considers how this was experienced by academics in 11 different countries through analysis of diaries written during the first lockdown. The paper asks if communities can offer an alternative to governmentality by looking at three levels: the national, the neighbourhood and the personal. Whilst at a national level the idea of community was instrumentalised to encourage compliance to extraordinary measures, at the local level community compassion through helping neighbours encouraged horizontal connections that could offer a “space” within the dominant logic of governmentality. At the level of personal communities, the digitalisation of social relationships helped to create supportive networks over widely dispersed areas but these were narrowly rather than widely focused, avoiding critical discussion.

This chapter focuses on the consequences of the Great Recession on job quality in Europe. It relies on European survey data (European Working Conditions Survey, Labour Force Survey, EU-SILC). It first shows that on average in the EU there was a marginal decline in job quality between 2005 and 2010 according to the ETUI Job Quality Index. Improvements are visible with regards to working conditions, working-time and work–life balance while involuntary non-standard employment increased and wages displayed a pronounced deterioration. A second step builds on dynamic indicators calculated at the individual level (transitions in terms of job quality between 2007 and 2009), using EU-SILC panel data. It shows that some socioeconomic groups were more affected by decreasing trends in job quality (other things being equal), especially youth, older workers and low-educated workers. In terms of gender, women were more likely than men to become unemployed or inactive over the period. At the same time, comparing national labour market institutions, employment protection legislation (as defined by the OECD) seems to have prevented transitions to non-employment (with no direct effect on job quality) while public expenditure per unemployed slightly reduced the risk of job quality deterioration.

This article examines the relationship between social networks as a job-finding channel and overqualification among recent EU migrants from Central Eastern to Western European countries. Social networks composed of relatives, friends or acquaintances can facilitate access to employers and thereby enhance labour market integration. However, when labour markets are segmented, (co-ethnic) social networks might also contribute to locking migrants into sectors and occupations characterised by high migrant shares, increasing the probability of a mismatch between skills and occupations. Drawing on data from the special module on migrants and their descendants in the 2014 European Labour Force Survey, this article considers subjective and objective overqualification. The analysis reveals that finding jobs through social networks bears a higher risk of overqualification in general, and especially for recent Central Eastern European migrants. The results point to a complex relationship between social-network job search, sectoral segmentation and destination-country language proficiency.

We examine the relationship between ‘flexicurity’ systems, unemployment and well-being outcomes for young people in Europe. A key tenet of the flexicurity approach is that greater flexibility of labour supply supports transitions into employment, trading longer-term employment stability for short-term job instability. However, there is a risk that young people experience greater job insecurity, both objective and subjective, with less stable contracts and more frequent unemployment spells. Our research draws on data from the European Social Survey and uses multi-level models to explore whether and how flexibility-security arrangements moderate the effect of past and present unemployment on the well-being of young people. We distinguish between flexibility-security institutions that foster improved job prospects and those that provide financial security.

Globally, Denmark stands out in terms of achieving high employment rates, containing unemployment and providing a labour market model combining flexibility, security and activation with a strong role for the social partners. The Danish labour market institutions and policies are seen as the catalyst for the transformation from industrial economy to a globalised, post-industrial and knowledge-based economy in which socio-economic equality and workforce security go hand in hand with competitiveness and the adaptability of business. In the 2000s, this mutual relationship came to be known as the Danish flexicurity model. Meanwhile, as a policy blueprint, ‘flexicurity’ has never really influenced Danish politics, and the reforms implemented since the 2000s have deviated from the premises of the model. This paper critically assesses the Danish model and its institutional components. It tracks the emergence of the Danish collective bargaining model as well as the flexicurity model. It scrutinises the challenges and performance of the current Danish labour market institutions and policies in a comparative perspective and discusses the extent to which the Danish experiences can and should be imitated abroad.

By merging longitudinal register data and a customised survey, this article explores whether sectoral segmentation, migrants’ pre- and post-migration human capital and social structures, shape wages of Polish and Romanian long-term migrants to Denmark. Pronounced wage differences in favour of Polish migrants are evident in the first two years in Denmark, notwithstanding the same regulatory context under the free movement of labour in the EU. Wage differences persist – albeit at a considerably lower level – throughout the eight-year period, mainly because of significant sectoral segmentation. Sectoral segmentation not explained by demographics, pre-migration human capital or crisis effects, might indicate categorical stereotyping by employers. Regarding (co-ethnic) social networks, at least for the early stages of migration, the study does not find significant effects on wages. While the evidence shows a positive return on wages of formal higher education taken post migration, this is not the case for further training and Danish language education.

By particularly stressing the weaker labour market attachment of workers with non-standard contracts, this article contributes to the rather unexplored issue of mainly non-union-related reasons for leaving trade unions. Germany has been selected as a case study because German unions experienced a steady decline in membership, while at the same time non-standard employment arrangements increased considerably and more so than the European average. Using the German Socio-Economic Panel data, the authors construct a labour market attachment variable capturing different degrees of attachment. Their analysis shows the impact of labour market attachment and firm-level characteristics on union leaving and points especially to important differences across gender.

This chapter adopts a critical perspective on policymaking in European labor markets before, during, and after the Great Recession. Using extensive analysis of recent policies at the flexibility–security interface, the chapter identifies four key weaknesses in relation to young people: There was an over-reliance on supply-side policies and quantitative targets, reforms were driven by macroeconomic stability goals rather than by a coherent vision for the labor market, reforms focused on a downward pressure on job security and employability despite slack labor demand, and there was limited consideration of the impact of precariousness and career insecurity on young people and their life courses. It is argued that European and national employment policy need to focus on durable and resilient labor markets for young women and men transitioning from school to work in the postcrisis period.

This chapter provides an integrated analysis of the findings from this volume. It discusses the challenges presented from comparing youth transitions across countries, the importance of using a wider range of indicators, and a more comprehensive policy focus. The chapter argues that the concept of economic production encapsulates some of the key dimensions and focus for policy initiatives related to labor market flexibility, mobility, and reforms to vocational education and training systems. It contends that an exclusive focus on this domain risks undervaluing the continued importance of the sphere of social reproduction, the role of family legacies, and how these affect established and emerging forms of inequality. It proposes that given the complexity and variety of youth transitions, policy initiatives need to simultaneously focus on both dimensions to develop multifocused strategies to ensure successful youth transitions. Finally, it identifies key issues for future research resulting from this comprehensive analysis.

The 2004/2007 EU enlargements rendered CEE citizens legally equal to EU labour market participants. However, CEE migrants still face ‘racialisation’ and segmentation in North-Western European labour markets. Similar processes might extend to EU-South migrants, giving rise to a division of labour, whereby CEE and EU-South migrants end up in poor-quality, low-pay jobs. We compare the labour market integration of recent intra-EU migrants (EU8, EU2, EU-South, EU-West/EEA) in the UK, Germany and Denmark. Using labour force, microcensus and register data, we model quantitative and qualitative integration through labour force participation and wages. We find no significant differences in labour force participation between nationals and migrants in the UK. Whilst in both Denmark and Germany, the labour force participation of EU-migrants is significantly lower. Notwithstanding differences in migration trends, labour markets and welfare regimes, we find evidence of a division of labour along occupational and industry lines − that translates into wage differences. EU-West/EEA migrants occupy better jobs (even outperforming nationals), followed by EU-South and CEE migrants. In Denmark and Germany, EU8 and EU2 migrants’ wages are lower than those of nationals even after controlling for differences in occupations. These findings suggest that inequalities across the EU are reproduced rather than converging.

Youth transitions to employment and adulthood have become increasingly protracted and precarious. The Great Recession exacerbated these difficulties. The varied European experiences affect young people differently in terms of their gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, even in successful countries. Youth Labor in Transition examines young people’s integration into employment, transitions affected by the family and moving away to live independently, and the decisions and consequences of migrating to find work and later returning home. The authors identify some of the key challenges for the future concerning young people not in employment, education, or training (NEETs); overeducation; self-employment; ethnicity; scarring effects; as well as the values and attitudes of young people and how they identify with trade unions. The central concept informing this research is based on a comparative analysis of transitions, policy performance, and learning approaches to overcoming youth unemployment. It illuminates when and how labor market analysis informs policy formulation, implementation, and evaluation based on extensive multimethod empirical research across the European continent. Collectively, the authors illustrate the need to encompass a wider understanding of youth employment and job insecurity by including an analysis of both the sphere of economic production and how it relates to social reproduction of labor if policy intervention is to be effective. Mapping and extensively analyzing these transitions is the result of original empirical analysis drawn from a three-and-a-half-year European Union-funded research project: STYLE—Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe.

This chapter examines the labor market integration of recent migrant youth from Central and Eastern Europe (EU8) countries, Bulgaria and Romania (EU2), Southern Europe, and the remaining European Union in the German and UK labor markets. The chapter measures levels of employment, income, marginal employment, fixed-term employment, (solo) self-employment, and the skills/qualification mismatch of each group compared to nationals before and after the financial crisis. Despite institutional differences, young EU citizens are well integrated into the respective labor markets (especially in the United Kingdom) in terms of employment rates. However, EU youth migrants’ qualitative labor market integration seems to mirror the existing stratification across regions of Europe: EU8 and EU2 citizens often work in precarious and nonstandard employment, youth from Southern Europe take a middle position, and youth from the remaining EU countries do as well or better on several indicators compared to their native peers.

In all European countries, young people are both more likely to be unemployed than adults and to account for comparatively higher shares of the workers in temporary employment. Moreover, they have more difficulty fulfilling eligibility criteria for unemployment benefits, including minimum contributory periods and means testing in secondary benefit schemes. Aggregate European Labour Force Survey data are used to estimate the access of young people to unemployment benefits as well as their participation in short-time working schemes. This analysis is complemented by an institutional analysis using databases such as LABREF and MISSOC to chart recent changes in unemployment benefit criteria directly or indirectly targeted at youth. Our results show that benefit coverage among youth has decreased further in a number of countries in the wake of the crisis, highlighting the weaknesses in protection for young people against economic shocks.

In the current discussions on combining work and family life, the idea of shorter working hours for fathers is becoming ever more popular. Although the proportion of part-time working men has somewhat increased in the last few years, parttime employment has been largely studied for women and mothers. Much less is known about men’s, and particularly fathers’, part-time employment. This study seeks to fill this gap by analysing part-time work among fathers in Germany, Sweden, Ireland, and the Netherlands using data from the European Labour Force Survey (LFS) from the year 2014. We show that fathers’ lower earning capacity within couples is not associated with a higher probability of working part-time in any of the four countries. Irrespective of the occupational status differences within couples, fathers in Germany and Ireland with three or more children are more likely to work part-time than fathers with fewer children; moreover, in both countries, married fathers are less likely to work part-time than unmarried fathers. While fathers of small children in the Netherlands are more likely to work part-time if they have a lower occupational status than their female partners, these fathers are less likely to work part-time in Ireland. Zusammenfassung In der aktuellen Debatte um eine verbesserte Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf geht es zunehmend auch um kürzere Arbeitszeiten von Vätern. Trotz eines leichten Anstiegs teilzeitarbeitender Männer in den letzten Jahren hat sich die sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung bislang vornehmlich mit Teilzeitarbeit von Frauen beschäftigt. Erkenntnisse darüber, unter welchen Bedingungen Männer, insbesondere Väter, Teilzeit arbeiten, gibt es kaum. Unsere Studie will zur Schließung dieser Forschungslücke mittels einer Analyse von Individualdaten der Europäischen Arbeitskräfteerhebung (EU AKE) für Deutschland, Schweden, Irland und die Niederlande aus dem Jahr 2014 beitragen. Wir können zeigen, dass Väter, die gleiche oder geringere Verdienstmöglichkeiten als ihre Partnerinnen haben, in keinem der Länder mit einer höheren Wahrscheinlichkeit Teilzeit arbeiten als Väter mit höheren Verdienstmöglichkeiten. Ungeachtet beruflicher Statusunterschiede innerhalb der Paarbeziehung arbeiten Väter mit drei oder mehr Kindern in Deutschland und Irland eher in Teilzeit; außerdem arbeiten verheiratete Väter in beiden Ländern seltener in Teilzeit als unverheiratete. Während in den Niederlanden Väter mit geringeren Verdienstmöglichkeiten als ihre Partnerinnen häufiger in Teilzeit arbeiten, wenn ein kleines Kind zu versorgen ist, arbeiten diese Väter in Irland seltener in Teilzeit., JFR - Journal of Family Research, Vol 29 No 1 (2017): Väter und Berufstätigkeit

This paper addresses the question of whether the current economic and financial crisis is challenging the prevailing gender-equality model in four European countries: Denmark, Germany, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom. After situating the countries in relation to the underlying gender regime and analysing the corresponding position of women and men in paid and unpaid work, the paper contains an in-depth discussion of the short- and medium-term policy responses to the crisis. Our analysis shows that independent of the prevailing gender regime, scant public attention has been directed to gender-sensitive policy responses. These shortcomings are compounded by the observation that the downturn seems to be delaying progress on equality policies.

This paper analyses whether developments on the labour market and in the welfare system during the economic crisis can be seen as perpetuating the trend towards labour market segmentation or whether the crisis may actually have contributed to containing some of the divisions forged in recent decades. With regard to non-standard workers, developments during the crisis in European countries may appear, at first sight, to have run in opposite directions. While these workers have indeed, in many cases, been more affected by unemployment, serious efforts have been made in several countries to improve their access to unemployment benefits as they are usually among those considerably less likely to qualify for unemployment benefits. Due in part to these improvements, but also as a result of changing characteristics of the pool of unemployed, increasing benefit coverage rates could be observed in many countries. In others, however, trends ran in the opposite direction. Women, and particularly youth, nonetheless remain in an inferior position and, on the EU27 average, the coverage rate of the latter group has actually declined during the first period of the crisis.

Cet article cherche a determiner si les evolutions du marche du travail et des regimes de protection sociale pendant la crise economique ont perpetue la tendance a la segmentation du marche du travail ou si, au contraire, la crise a attenue certains des clivages apparus au cours des dernieres decennies. Dans le cas des travailleurs atypiques, il semble, a premiere vue, que les changements observes durant la crise dans les pays d’Europe ne vont pas tous dans la meme direction. En effet, si, bien souvent, ces travailleurs ont ete davantage touches par le chomage, des efforts importants ont ete deployes pour ameliorer leur acces aux prestations de chomage, car en general, ce sont eux qui y sont les moins eligibles. Grâce a ces efforts, mais aussi parce que les caracteristiques des personnes sans emploi ne sont plus les memes, la couverture chomage s’est amelioree dans de nombreux pays. Dans d’autres, ce sont des tendances opposees qui sont apparues. Les femmes, mais surtout les jeunes, demeurent toutefois moins bien lotis. En moyenne, au sein de l’Europe des 27, la protection des jeunes a recule pendant la premiere partie de la crise.

There are few attempts to benchmark job quality in a multi-dimensional perspective across Europe. Against this background, we have created a synthetic job quality index (JQI) for the EU27 countries in an attempt to shed light on the question of how European countries compare with each other and how they are developing over time in terms of job quality. Taking account of the multi-faceted nature of job quality, the JQI is compiled on the basis of six sub-indices which cover the most important dimensions of job quality as identified in the literature. The paper addresses the methods used to construct the JQI and make it comparable over time. It presents the results for 2010 and briefly addresses changes over time to illustrate the potential and limits of a multidimensional European JQI. It also considers alternative specifications for various sub-indices and tests for the impact of changes in the indicators used on the outcomes. Overall, the findings appear to confirm the feasibility and desirability of attempting to assess job quality by means of a composite index that can be periodically updated. The key strength of this approach is the possibility to monitor and benchmark EU countries’ overall job quality performances and the outcomes in six sub-dimensions of job quality and compare them with each other, across gender and over time. At the same time, the limitations of such a composite index need to be borne in mind. The most important challenges are the availability (over time), timeliness and periodicity, comparability and disaggregation of data.

This paper examines the use of social networks and its impact on the qualitative labour market integration of young recent EU migrants from Central and Eastern European member states to EU15 countries as well as Switzerland and Norway. The literature points to both positive and negative impacts of social networks on migrant workers’ outcomes. Social networks can facilitate access to employers and information on labour regulation and rights and thereby improve the quantitative and qualitative labour market outcomes of migrant workers. On the other hand, social networks can also contribute to locking migrant workers into sectors and occupations with high shares of migrant workers, so-called niche employment. The latter can lead to suboptimal working conditions including a mismatch of skills and occupation (over-qualification) and lower wages. The impact might be particularly negative for recent migrants from Central and Eastern Europe as previous research on EU cross border labour mobility has shown that they are comparatively high qualified and young. The latter might put them at a double disadvantage given that youth have particular problems in entering (quality) employment as they lack work experience which they could use to signal to employers directly and might therefor have to rely more on social networks of established migrant communities. In contrast to the majority of current research on migrant outcomes and social networks which is based on qualitative research this paper makes use of the 2014 special module on migrants and their descendants of the European Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). The advantage of the special module is that it includes a subjective measure on over-qualification, one variable of our main interest. Given the existence of migrant employment niches, the standard measures on over-qualification are problematic in that they are usually based on occupational information. Importantly, the special module also contains information on how they found their current job including the use of social networks (relatives, friends or acquaintances), another variable of our main interest. Furthermore, beyond the standard demographics and employment characteristics the data also includes information on language competences and other hurdles preventing a person to have a job corresponding with their qualifications including a lack of recognition of qualifications obtained abroad and discrimination by origin, religion or social background. These are factors are likely to be important regarding the impact of social network support in finding employment on the respective qualitative employment outcomes. Due to data restrictions we have to compile all the post-2004 accession country migrants into one group (EU13). We do however control for different welfare regimes on the country of destination side given that quantitative and qualitative labour market integration differs substantively across welfare regimes. This is due to variation in the economic situation, labour regulation and institutional settings and language and cultural proximity among others which in turn might impact on the importance and role of social networks in labour market outcomes. Our analysis shows that in all European country clusters recent NMS13 migrants more often found their current job through social networks than nationals did. At the same time our findings indicate that when recent NMS13 migrants found their jobs through social networks it is more likely that they are over-qualified for the position and that they fall in a lower earnings class as compared to recent migrants who used other job search methods. In particular, young recent migrants are affected rather often by over-qualification and most of them have rather low earnings. Thus using established social networks for job search might go hand in hand with sub-optimal qualitative employment outcomes. Immigrant occupational and sectoral segmentation might partially explain this outcome. However, the results differ between different welfare regimes and across individual and job characteristics of the NMS13 migrants.

Esta introduccion presenta los demas articulos del numero monografico y analiza las etapas de la crisis economica en la Union Europea desde 2008, destacando la importancia de la politica social para mitigar sus efectos iniciales en los europeos. Tanto la crisis como las medidas gubernamentales para afrontarla han exacerbado la desigualdad laboral dentro de cada pais, como ponen de manifiesto el aumento desproporcionado del desempleo juvenil y los datos sobre genero aportados por las autoras. Las divergencias en cuanto a estructura y contenido de los planes de estimulo y de austeridad nacionales tambien parecen explicar el aumento de las diferencias entre paises de la UE.

PurposeWhile forms of non‐standard employment (which include part‐time work and temporary employment) have received active promotion in recent years, possible negative effects emerging from these forms of employment have not been high on the agenda. This paper, accordingly, aims to compare workers with non‐standard contracts and those with standard contracts in relation to transitions out of employment into unemployment, inactivity, household/care activities and education/training. Country differences in outcome are expected due to varying regulations of standard and non‐standard employment and different reasons for resorting to forms of non‐standard employment.Design/methodology/approachThe comparison covers four countries, namely Denmark, Germany, the UK and Spain. The segmentation theory is tested by analysing mobility patterns on the basis of the European Community Household Panel data. Event history analysis methods are used. Maximum likelihood multinomial regression models are calculated on the event history data in order to assess competing exits (unemployment, inactivity, household/care and education) between non‐standard and standard workers.FindingsThe risk of temporary workers exiting employment is greatest by far in Spain, but also evident in the other countries: casual employment is even more volatile than fixed‐term employment. Concerning part‐time workers, downward transitions to inactivity and/or household/care are much more frequent than among full‐time workers, and this is true even in Spain and Denmark where part‐time employment is not traditionally used to combine work with family activities. The expectation that there would be no differences in exits to unemployment – insofar as employment protection legislation applies to both full‐time and regular part‐time workers – proves true only for Denmark and Germany.Originality/valueIn contrast to most papers on the segmentation potential of non‐standard employment this paper is comparative. Furthermore, it uses event history methods and places a special focus on potentially employability‐enhancing “sideways transitions” to education/training measures.

Wahrend die Erstausbildung fruher eine solide Grundlage fur den weiteren Be-rufsverlauf darstellte, ist heute eine kontinuierliche Investition in Weiterbildung mit dem Ziel einer Anpassung an die im spezifischen Arbeitskontext benotigten Fertigkeiten und Fahigkeiten in den meisten Berufsfeldern unerlasslich. Vor allem technische und organisatorische Veranderungen, der demografische Wandel und das stete Wachstum der Beschaftigung in der Dienstleistungsbranche haben zu einer Bedeutungszunahme von Weiterbildung gefuhrt. Infolge dieser Trends haben sich Arbeitsmarkte, Berufsbilder und -anforderungen verandert.

This Working Paper describes the main trends in post-enlargement east/west intra-EU labour mobility. It looks at how different population groups, nationals, EU8 and EU21 migrants have been affected by the turbulent processes of opening up national labour markets and subsequently by the crisis.

A. Franco, N. Malhotra, and G. Simonovits (“Publication bias in the social sciences: Unlocking the file drawer,” Reports, 19 September, p. [1502][1]) present convincing evidence of publication bias in the social sciences. Encouraging publication of negative results will indeed benefit the

Pel que fa a les novetats introduïdes al mercat de treball i els seus resultats, a Alemanya li està anant relativament bé. De fet, i en contra de la tendència europea, Alemanya ha vist augmentar les seves taxes d'ocupació i el descens de la desocupació durant la crisi econòmica. Però, des de les reformes desreguladores de Hartz de principis i mitjans dels anys 2000, l'última dècada ha estat testimoni de l'emergència de formes no convencionals d'ocupació i el creixement del sector de baixos salaris. Un dels objectius de les reformes Hartz era augmentar les oportunitats d'ocupació, entre d’altres en el sector de baixos salaris i especialment en el sector serveis. Els treballadors no estàndard, i entre aquests aquells amb contractes de durada determinada, els treballadors d'agències temporals, els treballadors fixos a temps parcial i els mini-jobbers són els, comparativament, més afectats pels baixos salaris., In terms of basic labour market developments and outcomes Germany is faring comparatively well. Indeed, against the European trend, Germany saw employment rates increasing and unemployment decreasing during the economic crisis. But since the deregulatory Hartz reforms of the early and mid-2000s, the last decade saw non-standard forms of employment increasing substantially and the low wage sector surging. One of the aims of the Hartz reforms was to increase employment opportunities, among other in the low wage sector, especially in services. Non-standard workers and among them fixed-term, temporary agency workers, regular part-time workers and mini-jobbers are disproportionally affected by low wages., Con respecto a las novedades introducidas en el mercado de trabajo y sus resultados, a Alemania le está yendo relativamente bien. De hecho, y en contra de la tendencia europea, Alemania ha visto aumentar sus tasas de empleo y el descenso del desempleo durante la crisis económica. Pero desde las reformas desreguladoras de Hartz de principios y mediados de los años 2000, la última década ha sido testigo de la emergencia de formas no convencionales de empleo y el crecimiento del sector de bajos salarios. Uno de los objetivos de las reformas Hartz era aumentar las oportunidades de empleo, entre otros en el sector de bajos salarios, especialmente en el sector servicios. Los trabajadores no estándar y entre ellos aquellos con contratos de duración determinada, los trabajadores de agencias temporales, los trabajadores fijos a tiempo parcial y mini- jobbers son los, comparativamente más afectados por los bajos salarios.

The continued economic crisis has become a major test for the labour markets of individual member states. Labour mobility within the European Union has the potential to help to reduce labour market pressures and ease economic imbalances. However, a long-term loss of working age population can be detrimental to sending countries. This Forum explores mobility patterns within the European Union and analyses the labour market and welfare effects of labour mobility via case studies of the UK, Poland, Germany and Spain. It also examines a number of its aspects that have important political and institutional relevance for the European Union and its future.

This paper by senior ETUI researchers Bela Galgoczi and Janine Leschke looks at recent trends in labour migration from new EU member states to the EU15, with a focus on the impact of the crisis on intra-EU labour mobility. Based on data from the European Labour Force Survey, the findings of the study contradict expectations, previously expressed in the literature, according to which deep recessions will result in a slowdown in migration flows. The overall stock of EU10 population in EU15 countries has continued to grow during the crisis, except in Ireland and Spain, two countries that were particularly hard hit by the recession and which, prior to the crisis, exhibited large EU10 migrant inflows.When looking at the direct impact of the crisis, the authors find that, in terms of both employment and unemployment rates, EU10 migrants in the majority of EU15 countries were harder hit by the crisis than were nationals and thus appear to have served, at least partially, as labour market buffers. Paradoxically, however, due to a stronger influx of EU10 migrants to EU15 labour markets during the crisis, their absolute numbers in employment grew, while the employment of nationals generally decreased.Other important issues addressed in the paper include the use of posted workers and (bogus) self-employment to circumvent restrictions on labour mobility imposed by transitional measures, and the mismatch between the skills of EU10 migrants and the jobs they take in the EU15.The findings show strong evidence of over-qualification and the corresponding underutilisation of EU10 migrant workers’ skills. This finding, insofar as it contradicts the expectation that greater labour mobility will automatically contribute to a better functioning of European labour markets, poses a major policy challenge.