Janine Leschke

• Professor at Copenhagen Business School

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...

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 De...

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 lab...

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...

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...

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 di...

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 quantita...

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-emplo...

This introductory chapter outlines the key trends and debates concerning the rapid growth of youth unemployment and early career labor market insecurity in Europe. It discusses new forms of segmentation and the distinction between “poorly integrated youth” and those “left behind” in relation to gender, ethnicity, and class inequalities. The chapter...

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 pe...

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 pe...

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-qua...

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...

It is well established that unemployment and insecurity have a negative impact on well-being. Yet it has been proposed that unemployment hits young people less hard, psychologically speaking, because work is not as central to their identity and because they have fewer financial responsibilities than prime-age workers. If this is true, then the high...

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...

Während die Erstausbildung früher eine solide Grundlage für den weiteren Berufsverlauf darstellte, ist heute eine kontinuierliche Investition in Weiterbildung mit dem Ziel einer Anpassung an die im spezifischen Arbeitskontext benötigten Fertigkeiten und Fähigkeiten in den meisten Berufsfeldern unerlässlich. Vor allem technische und organisatorische...

Intra-EU labor mobility is often characterized as a major contributor to better functioning European labor markets. Does the evidence of recent cross-border labor mobility support this positive expectation? Does the EU live up to its potential of being a role model by showing that managing free movement of labor in turbulent times is possible? We w...

Current levels of youth unemployment need to be understood in the context of increased labour market flexibility, an expansion of higher education, youth migration and family legacies of long-term unemployment. Compared with previous recessions, European-wide policies and investments have significantly increased with attempts to support national po...

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.

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 mitja...

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...

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

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 qual...

This paper focuses on the consequences of the crisis on job quality in Europe. Its aim is twofold: first, to identify trends in job quality in the EU during the 2007-2009 crisis; secondly, to explore the link between these trends and cyclical as well as institutional factors. It relies on European surveys data (European Working Conditions Survey, L...

Largely because of the European Union's two-phase expansion in 2004 and 2007, labor migration across the continent has changed significantly in recent years. Notably, the EU's policy of open borders has enabled a growing stream of workers to leave new member states in search of higher wages. As a result, the nature, scale, and direction of migratio...

Cet article cherche à déterminer si les évolutions du marché du travail et des régimes de protection sociale pendant la crise économique ont perpétué la tendance à la segmentation du marché du travail ou si, au contraire, la crise a atténué certains des clivages apparus au cours des dernières décennies. Dans le cas des travailleurs atypiques, il se...

Resumen Esta introducción presenta los demás artículos del número monográfico y analiza las etapas de la crisis económica en la Unión Europea desde 2008, destacando la importancia de la política social para mitigar sus efectos iniciales en los europeos. Tanto la crisis como las medidas gubernamentales para afrontarla han exacerbado la desigualdad l...

Résumé Dans l'introduction à ce numéro spécial de la Revue internationale du Travail , les auteurs retracent les grandes phases de la crise économique dans l'Union européenne depuis 2008 et soulignent le rôle crucial des politiques sociales pour en atténuer les effets sur la population. Toutefois, et les auteurs l'illustrent avec les inégalités ent...

This paper by senior ETUI researchers Béla Galgóczi 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...

This paper is an update of the synthetic job quality index (JQI) for the EU27 countries which has been created in 2008 (see ETUI Working paper 2008.03 and 2008.07) 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. The results point out that th...

Quality of work is a core element of the European social model. In this article we analyse the role and instruments of EU actors in this policy area in order to discover the extent to which it has been institutionalized since the mid-1990s. We first demonstrate that quality of work has to be understood as a multi-dimensional concept, before analysi...

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. The emphasis is placed on (involuntary) part-tim...

The debate on the free movement of labour within the EU has gained new momentum in the wake of the economic crisis. Building on the earlier Ashgate publication EU Labour Migration Since Enlargement, the editors have assembled a team of experts from across Europe to shed light on the critical issues raised by internal labour mobility within the EU i...

This working paper is an update of the 2009/3 ETUI Working Paper that was itself an abridged and revised version of the introductory chapter of the book EU Labour Migration since Enlargement: Trends, Impacts and Policies. The book, published by Ashgate in May 2009, was edited by the present authors. This updated working paper focuses on the effects...

This ETUI working paper aims to assess the impact of the current financial and economic crisis on gender equality in terms of labour market and welfare outcomes. The authors undertake an in-depth examination of three European countries with differing welfare state configurations and different prevailing gender regimes: Denmark (universal bread-winn...

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This paper analyses how European countries have fared in terms of labour market outcomes during the Lisbon Strategy period, and, particularly, in the first phase of the economic crisis. Focussing on transitions from unemploy-ment to work and how these transitions can be bridged through active labour market policies (ALMPs) it aims at answering the...

In particular due to increasing female employment over the last decades employment has become more flexible in regard to the contract form and we observe more discontinuous employment careers. This paper discusses in how far retirement pension systems in Europe are suited to cover the specific risks of flexible workers. Recent reforms to these syst...

The economic crisis which began in most European countries in mid-2008 has had severe effects on labour markets. Although no country has escaped the crisis, the extent of output losses and the number of jobs lost, as well as the resulting rise in unemployment, vary considerably between countries. In order to shed light on this issue, this paper exa...

Over the last three decades trade unions in almost all European countries have been losing members. In particular non-standard workers (part-time employed, temporary employed and own- account self-employed) are currently less likely than those on standard contracts to be organised in unions. The paper, which is based on a literature review, has a t...

Während die Erstausbildung früher eine solide Grundlage für den weiteren Be-rufsverlauf darstellte, ist heute eine kontinuierliche Investition in Weiterbildung mit dem Ziel einer Anpassung an die im spezifischen Arbeitskontext benötigten Fertigkeiten und Fähigkeiten in den meisten Berufsfeldern unerlässlich. Vor allem technische und organisatorisch...

Purpose – While 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 stand...

One of the most important consequences of EU enlargement in May 2004 was to extend the principle of the free movement of labour to the citizens of the central and eastern European new member states. In this book a team of labour economists and migration experts sheds light on the dimensions, characteristics and impacts of cross-border labour migrat...

Much of the gender inequality in the labour market is brought about by women's dual role as worker and (potential) carer. In this regard transitional arrangements can contribute to mitigate the risks associated with parenthood and to distribute risks more equally. This paper looks at these issues in light of the transitional labour market (TLM) con...

Technische und organisatorische Veränderungen, der demografische Wandel und das stete Wachstum der Beschäftigung in den Dienstleistungen haben zu einer Bedeutungszunahme von Weiterbildung geführt. Infolge dieser Trends haben sich Arbeitsmärkte, Berufsbilder und Berufsstrukturen gewandelt. Während die Erstausbildung früher eine solide Grundlage für...

The importance of non-standard employment forms has increased over the last decades. Janine Leschke addresses two important questions in this regard. First, do workers with part-time and temporary contracts face greater risks of becoming unemployed than those with regular contracts? Secondly, how far are they disadvantaged in terms of access to and...

This chapter will discuss the features of the countries’ unemployment insurance systems that are important in respect of the benefit receipt of non-standard workers. The first, more theoretical part on the male breadwinner model will take up the second hypothesis, that countries vary concerning the connection between social insurance and standard e...

This section provides information on the development of non-standard employment. It is important to take into account the wider labour market situation. People might be more inclined to take up temporary employment in labour markets that are characterised by high unemployment. Another assumption is that parttime employment is more relevant in count...

Do academic publication standards reflect or determine research results? The article proposes minimal criteria for distinguishing useful ‘unpublishable’ results from low-quality research, and argues that the virtues of negative results have been overlooked. We consider the fate these results have suffered thus far, review arguments for and against...

This paper addresses the question to what extent social protection systems in different European countries do succeed in coping with the risks arising from non-standard forms of employment. Focusing on the examples of part-time and temporary employment, the paper will examine ex-clusionary transitions and the access to unemployment insurance benefi...

Social insurance systems are known to reproduce gender inequalities in the labour market because they are usually based on standard employment contracts (full-time, permanent, dependent) and often take into account the household constellation through means-testing. Gender inequalities in the labour market consist of higher part-time employment rate...

In the context of the ongoing reforms on European labour markets the keyword flexicurity is presently gaining prominence. We therefore want to explore the importance of the flexicurity-concept on the example of the German Hartzreforms. Starting from the frequently used definition as a trade-off between employers demands for flexibility and employee...

Active labour market policies (ALMPs) are found in almost all countries of the world but differ in amplitude, design and implementation. Comprising an array of measures, ALMPs can take the form of special support for job searching, and training and education for the unemployed, and various other subsidies and job creation activities. While providin...

The global economic crisis that began in September 2008 – with roots that go back much further – has had a devastating effect on incomes, government finances and, not the least, labour markets. Over time, impacts in these three areas will feed into 'social' outcomes. With high unemployment and fiscal austerity, increases in inequality, poverty and...