Unemployment and Labour Market Policies: Some Lessons from West Germany

The author points out that West Germany has had low inflation, high industrial efficiency, and good vocational training, but has not escaped rising levels of unemployment. After an analysis of employment trends in Germany since 1945 there is a review of varying government policies in public expenditure and in dealing with unemployment. The author relates demographic trends to employment patterns, and refers to such phenomena as the "dormant labour force", concluding that unemployment will remain high. He reviews the effects of social security benefits and of job creation schemes. He concludes that none of the well-known remedies for unemployment have proved effective in themselves but that short-term job creation schemes are very much a "second-best". He concludes that industrial efficiency — though essential — is not enough in itself and that conquering inflation or providing youth training are shown by the German example to be only a partial help and not a solution to improving employment prospects.     

从社工视角探讨失地农民问题

在我国城镇化的进程中,一部分农民因为国家建设征地而失去土地,成为失地农民。失地农民面临"农转非"的生存方式转换,产生了就业难、保障缺乏等一系列问题,而单纯依赖政府的支持与保障来解决失地农民的问题并不足够。本文从社会工作的专业视角出发,探讨社会工作者如何以社会工作特有的专业方法和实务技巧介入解决失地农民的就业安置问题、社会保障问题。     

Social security for the twenty-first century

Social security schemes are accused of undermining both competitiveness and employment, because of the burden of contributions, and weakening economic vitality through their disincentive effects on work and levels of saving. Yet at the same time they are called upon to meet new social needs arising from family instability and changes in the labour market – growing unemployment and reduced job security, widening pay differentials and a decline in the position of self-employed workers – trends which coincide with the globalization of markets. This article postulates the need for improved redistribution (without making changes in social security coverage) in order to achieve a balance between occupational and national solidarity which favours the latter, since stable and full-time employment for all can no longer be assured.     

Precarious workers' choices about unemployment insurance membership after the Ghent system reform: The Finnish experience

The literature on the Ghent system has focused on the link between voluntary unemployment insurance and union membership in terms of industrial relations. Less attention has been paid to unemployment benefits and employees' decision‐making concerning unemployment insurance, even though the core function of the Ghent system is to provide unemployment insurance. This paper examines both of the options that precarious workers (i.e., part‐timers, temporary employees, and low‐skilled service employees) choose regarding unemployment insurance membership and the change in union density after the Ghent system reform in Finland. First, the results show that the growth of the independent unemployment insurance fund was the main reason for declining union density in the 2000s and early 2010s. Second, in terms of precarious workers, we find that the emergence of the independent fund has affected their choices about unemployment insurance membership and that their choices depend on the type of precarious employment they have. Moreover, part‐timers and temporary employees younger than 35 years of age are much less likely to enroll in unemployment insurance than older employees who have the same types of employment contracts.     

Complexities in Assessing Unemployment Benefits and Policies

Employed workers cannot access unemployment insurance as a matter of choice. Benefit periods and benefit amounts vary between groups in the population. Unemployment benefit recipients have not only rights to benefits but also obligations to meet in order to maintain eligibility. The existence of functional equivalent benefit schemes contributes to benefit transition and substitution. All these aspects are of crucial importance both for the economic well-being of families with unemployed members and for policymaking. This article illustrates some of these complex institutional aspects through an analysis of benefits for unemployment in a number of northern European countries in 1996 and by reference to recent Danish experiences.     

The protection of atypical work in the Australian, British and German social security systems

It is a common feature of Australian, British and German social security law to exclude atypical work from many normal standards of protection. Social insurance and occupational welfare law still concentrate on the standard employment relationship, as they use length and continuity of employment as the major criteria for distributing benefits, and means-tested systems put those who depend on different sources of income, as most atypical workers do, at a disadvantage. However, equal treatment and even promotion are granted to one type of atypical work: the combination of domestic and atypical labour market work. Examples are the law of unemployment insurance in Great Britain and Germany, the family components within the social insurance schemes, the special British and Australian means-tested benefits for the working poor family, and parental leave legislation in Germany.     

Deciphering Deservedness: Canadian Employment Insurance Reforms in Historical Perspective

In 2012, the Government of Canada introduced reforms to Employment Insurance (EI), Canada's primary income security programme for the unemployed. The changes entailed new requirements for particular types of claimants to apply for and accept jobs of increasingly less pay, and codified the efforts claimants must demonstrate in job searches to maintain benefits. These measures leave many claimants little choice but to accept precarious employment as a means of financial survival. The central claim of the article is that recent EI reforms are not adequately understood as an instance of neo‐liberal activation. Instead, they must be situated in a long history of attempts to categorize the unemployed as deserving or undeserving of income security on the basis of their work history and perceptions of their willingness to work. Through a survey of different periods of unemployment policy in Canada, we demonstrate continuity in authorities' efforts to differentiate the unemployed into categories of worthy and unworthy. Within this history, however, the 2012 reforms are unprecedented in the extent to which they reorient the EI programme to service low wage labour markets. By way of conclusion, we suggest that the current EI programme exacerbates insecurities for the growing segment of workers in precarious employment.     

Why are Swedes sick but Finns unemployed?

While the Finnish and Swedish social security systems are structurally quite similar, the two countries show marked differences both in the recipiency rates of sickness and work disability benefits and in the level of open un­employment. In Sweden, the usage of sickness-related benefits since the beginning of the 1990s has varied in inverse relation to the level of registered unemployment, whereas in Fin­land, recipiency rates of sickness and work disability benefits have remained fairly constant, registered unemployment having typically been more than twice the Swedish level. Using the available statistical data, the article explores the differences in the prevalences of sickness, work disability and unemployment benefits between Sweden and Finland. Factors that may explain the divergence between the two countries are sought and interpreted from the long-term differences in welfare-state strategies and the structural features of the social security systems under investigation.     

Comparing Formal Unemployment Compensation Systems in 15 OECD Countries

This study contributes to the welfare regime literature by analyzing unemployment compensation programmes – unemployment insurance (UI)/assistance (UA) programmes and redundancy pay schemes – of welfare state/occupational welfare regimes. It covers 15 countries of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) selected from Southern European, Liberal, Continental‐corporatist and Social Democratic country clusters. In contrast to the common argument that Southern European countries have underdeveloped formal unemployment compensation systems, this study argues that they (especially in Spain, Portugal, and to some extent Italy) are comparable in strength to those in Continental‐corporatist countries if occupational welfare programmes – notably redundancy pay – are considered alongside welfare state programmes for unemployment protection. The study also outlines the characteristics of redundancy pay schemes in the four country clusters and shows how different redundancy pay schemes are linked to UI/UA schemes in these clusters.     

Integrating citizen's income with social insurance

Citizen's income or social dividend schemes are a way of avoiding the "poverty trap", or disincentive effect, inherent in withdrawing unemployment compensation completely when the beneficiary returns to work. If there are inadequate financial incentives for the unemployed to return to work, the benefit administration may feel the need for tighter discipline of the unemployed, threatening to withdraw benefit from those who reject offers of low-paid work. Citizen's income provides better incentives to work without so much need for sanctions. The article explores four different methods of introducing a citizen's income gradually by allowing people to keep an increasing proportion of their benefit as they move from unemployment into work. New transfers would also be made to never-unemployed workers, to secure equity between all persons whatever their employment status or history. The best method is to define an hourly unemployment benefit, and make benefit for a certain number of hours unconditional on employment status. This gives better incentives to work part-time than existing benefit systems, and fairer treatment for those who can only find a part-time job. Minimum wage regulation is important, to prevent employers taking advantage of a citizen's income to reduce wage rates.     

After Retrenchment: Labour Market Experiences of Women and Men

Job loss in manufacturing industry has been a marked feature of the Australian economy over the last decade but little is known about the prospects for re-employment of workers who have been retrenched. This paper reports the results of a survey of the subsequent labour market experiences of 271 workers made redundant when a whitegoods plant was closed in December 1982 at Bankstown in Sydney's western suburbs. The retrenched workers were contacted twice, ten to twelve months apart and a response rate of 80 per cent was achieved. The paper compares the labour market experiences of retrenched women and men. Does the lower labour force participation rate of women in the population at large apply to women who have previously shown a strong commitment to the labour force through their stable employment history? The paper discusses the factors which might affect retrenched women's response to unemployment, including institutional arrangements, a gender-based domestic division of labour and the nature of the jobs available to unskilled blue collar workers.     

Partisanship,continuity, and change: Politics in Finnish unemployment benefit reforms 1985–2016

The apparent decline of partisan effects on social policies since the 1980s has encouraged the development of theories that challenge the traditional partisan politics theory. Although the new politics approach pointed to institutional path-dependence and to the unpopularity of radical retrenchment, recent research has highlighted shifts in electoral landscapes, differences in party systems and institutional contexts, and changing party-voter linkages. This in-depth case study contributes to debates on partisan effects by focusing on Finland, whose dualistic unemployment benefit system and institutional and political conditions provide an interesting case to analyse changing partisan effects. The aim is to explain, through qualitative policy analysis, why government partisanship has not had a significant effect on unemployment benefit levels since 1985. The explanations are different for earnings-related and flat-rate benefits. For the former, retrenchment efforts have seen a distinct partisan divide, but trade unions have thwarted most cutbacks; thus, although partisanship has not mattered much for policy outcomes, power resources have remained important as inhibitor of cuts. For the latter, parties that in the late 1980s still had differing priorities have since converged on policies emphasizing activation and work incentives. Universal flat-rate benefits have lacked political support and have been left to stagnate. The study suggests that one single theory is not sufficient to explain developments even in one single welfare policy—there are too many aspects to cover—not to speak of the entire welfare state consisting of an array of different schemes.     

Global employment and decent jobs, 2010–2030: The forces of demography and automation

Globally, an estimated 734 million jobs will be required between 2010 and 2030 to accommodate recent and ongoing demographic shifts, account for plausible changes in labour force participation rates, and achieve target unemployment rates of at or below 4 per cent for adults and at or below 8 per cent for youth. The facts that most new jobs will be required in countries where “decent” jobs are less prevalent and workers in many occupations are increasingly subject to risks of automation further compound the challenge of job creation, which is already quite sizable in historical perspective. Failure to create the jobs that are needed through 2030 would put currently operative social security systems under pressure and undermine efforts to guarantee the national social protection floors enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).     

USING BUDGET CONSTRAINTS TO ILLUSTRATE POVERTY TRAPS: THE CASE OF YOUNG PART-TIME WORKERS IN AUSTRALIA

Although much is known about the incidence of unemployment in Australia over the recent past, the causes of unemployment remain controversial. Various explanations have been advanced, some of which focus on the unemployment benefits system. The present study examines the problem of high effective marginal tax rates faced by young social security recipients wishing to engage in part-time employment, and the resultant emergence of so-called ‘poverty traps’. We examine budget constraints for unemployed eighteen year olds, both singles and couples, for part-time employment in four low income occupations; namely, brickie's labourer, public service clerk, stationhand and sales assistant. The results indicate that pervasive disincentive effects exist for young people seeking low wage employment.     

Balancing work and welfare: activation and flexicurity policies in The Netherlands, 1980–2000

As a result of the flexibilisation of labour and the trend towards the 'activating welfare state', social policies show an increasing interconnection of work and welfare issues. The Netherlands is no exception. It is generally believed that the Dutch welfare state is successfully activating its unemployed labour potential (often referred to as the 'Dutch Miracle'), and that flexible and part-time work is protected by adequate 'flexicurity'. This article critically reviews Dutch activation and flexicurity policies. It concludes that there is still more unemployment than the miracle-story suggests; that important target groups of activation policies have not profited from 'the miracle'; that part-time workers have sufficient social protection but that social security for flex-workers still needs major improvements, despite favourable adjustments of labour law.     

Reforming social security in economies in transition: Problems and policies in the former Soviet Republic of Moldova

In the Republic of Moldova, as in other former Soviet republics, a great deal of pressure has been put on the social security system by the removal of general consumer subsidies and their replacement with targeted compensation payments (assistance). The growth of assistance needs has made it difficult to reform earnings-related pension provision along "insurance" lines. There have also been adverse developments in the labour market. Large-scale open unemployment has not emerged, but insurance contributions are not being paid. Some of the measures which have been adopted to deal with the resulting financial crisis are counterproductive for the development of a social security system compatible with a market economy.     

Social Policy between Plan and Market: Xiagang (Off-duty Employment) and the Policy of the Re-employment Service Centres in China

China's gradual transition from a command economy to a market system has been vexed by its ailing state‐owned enterprises (SOEs) employing huge numbers of surplus workers. Under the growing challenge of market competition, the survival of SOEs depends critically on the release of unwanted staff. If not handled well, however, massive layoffs could trigger ugly protests, erode social stability and challenge the governing mandate of the Chinese Communist Party. Facing this dilemma, the state's response has been to invent a process of ‘xiagang’ (off‐duty employment) whereby redundant state workers can leave the production process without causing social turbulence, and to introduce a national programme of re‐employment service centres (RSCs) which offer living allowances, social security, job training and re‐employment assistance as a transitional measure. As a distinct form of unemployment, xiagang reflects the special challenge confronting the state and civil society in a critical stage of China's market transition. This article sets out to explore the political and social meanings of xiagang and the RSCs to elucidate how the state uses a specific social policy to balance both group and national interests and to steer the country on to the next stage of market development.     

Activation,Public Employment Services and their Clients: The Role of Social Class in a Continental Welfare State

This article fills a gap in the existing literature by investigating how public employment service (PES) staff actually deal with their clients under a continental regime of activation. The results reported here are based on interviews both with PES staff and their unemployed clients in Germany. We argue that due to its Bismarckian origins as an insurance‐based system of ‘unemployment protection’, Germany's system of unemployment compensation is attractive not only for the marginalized, but also for core workers. As a result, PES staff deal with clients from very heterogeneous class backgrounds. We demonstrate that social class is a significant factor in client outcomes, and that earlier research has perhaps overemphasized the role of frontline staff as ‘street‐level bureaucrats’. While staff do have considerable power, the result of the encounters between the administration and clients also depends on the capabilities of the clients, which, in turn, are strongly related to social class.     

The difficulties of extending social security in Tunisia's agricultural sector

The development of social security in the agricultural sector in Tunisia faces obstacles due to the particular social and economic conditions that apply. The desire of the public authorities to extend social protection to the rural population as a whole runs up against both technical and financial problems. The exact number of people employed in the agricultural sector is not known and it is difficult to define precisely the range of persons to be protected. The changes that have been made in the legal framework in order to adapt social security to the composition and the working conditions of the agricultural population have not achieved their objective. The lack of a coherent system is reflected in particular in the variety of legal provisions and schemes which may be applicable to employees engaged in the same work or working in the same firm. The precarious nature of agricultural employment, the low incomes and thus the low contributory capacity of the workers, the level of benefits offered — in the agricultural schemes sometimes very much below those in the general scheme — all these make social security appear impossible to achieve or not worth while. The resistance encountered by the social security institution may also be due in part to the failure of the Social Security Fund to make people sufficiently aware of the position in the face of some of the traditional structures of solidarity.     

Unemployment of professional artists: empirical evidence from Australia

This paper analyses the determinants of professional artists' unemployment. A sample of 1030 Australian artists was examined to determine the relationship between the probability of unemployment and artistic profession, education, origin and other demographic covariates. Special attention is focussed on factors influencing the probability of long‐term unemployment. It is found that artists in Australia are a heterogeneous labour market group, as regards exposure to unemployment and long‐term unemployment risk. The probability of unemployment episodes varies significantly depending on the artistic occupation: community cultural development workers, actors and directors are most likely to experience unemployment, while musicians and craftspeople are the least likely. Youth, disability, living in a capital city or in Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria or New South Wales, as well as level of tertiary education, can all increase the likelihood of unemployment episodes. On the other hand, participation in formal training in the artistic profession and living in a relationship or marriage are associated with a lower probability of unemployment. Being a writer or visual artist, living in the Northern Territory, and lower levels of education can increase the probability of experiencing long‐term unemployment. Neither gender, nor origin nor age affects the risk of long‐term unemployment of Australian artists.