No longer ‘fit for purpose’? Consolidation and catch-up in Irish labour market policy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Dukelow
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Recent Change ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Policy Regime ◽  
Employment Services ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
Benefit System

This chapter discusses recent change to Irish labour market policy which, it argues, has been guided by the idea that Ireland’s policy regime prior to the 2008 crisis was no longer ‘fit for purpose’ being overly focused on a passive benefit system and a similarly passive approach to activation. The chapter maps three key changes related to consolidation and catch-up. First, retrenchment is further eroding the already weak social insurance underpinnings of the system. Second, existing activation programmes which focused heavily on direct job creation have been somewhat curtailed; new more market oriented programmes have been introduced and compulsion has been stregthened. Third, major institutional re-design is leading to greater integration of the benefit system with employment services and a turn towards privatisation and marketisation. By assessing these changes against recent labour market dynamics the chapter also considers how they are contributing to a more precarious labour market regime post-crisis.

Dualising the Swedish model: insiders and outsiders and labour market policy reform in Sweden: an overview

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Bo Davidsson
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Active Labour Market Policy ◽  
Social Insurance System ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Swedish Model ◽  
Welfare Institutions ◽  
Active Labour ◽  
Fiscal Austerity

For many decades it seemed that the Swedish model was immune to change. Welfare scholars saw in Sweden a paragon of an equal society based on a generous welfare state that had withstood the pressures of globalisation. While it is true that some welfare institutions are still intact, that is no longer the case in labour market policy. This cannot be explained by fiscal austerity imposed by the EU; rather it was the economic crisis in the early 1990s that first set reforms in motion. This chapter traces labour market reforms in Sweden over the past two decades. The pattern suggested here is one in which labour market outsiders have borne the brunt of reforms. This can be seen in the manner in which labour market flexibility was introduced, the fact that many of the unemployed now stand outside the social insurance system, in the declining value of social assistance benefits and perhaps most strikingly in the radical cuts to spending on active labour market policy.

scholarly journals Exit Bismarck, Enter Dualism? Assessing Contemporary German Labour Market Policy

2011 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 795-810 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOCHEN CLASEN ◽  
ALEXANDER GOERNE
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractBetween 2003 and 2005, German labour market policy was subjected to the most far-reaching reform since the 1960s. Some commentators have interpreted the changes introduced as signalling a departure from the traditional ‘Bismarckian’ paradigm in German social policy. For others, the new legislation has contributed and consolidated an ever-more pervasive trend of dualisation within the German welfare state. In this article, we contest both interpretations. First, we demonstrate that traditional social insurance principles remain a dominant element within unemployment protection. Second, we show that German labour market policy is less rather than more segmented today than it was a decade ago.

The End of Social Security as we know it – The Erosion of Status Protection in German Labour Market Policy

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
SILKE BOTHFELD ◽  
PEER ROSENTHAL
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Policy Regime ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Working Age ◽  
Supporting Pillar

AbstractThe German labour market policy regime constitutes a reliable supporting pillar of the highly productive German employment system. Due to the most recent reforms, its core principle of status protection – a basic norm of the German middle-class-related model of social protection for the population of working age – is losing its formative character. Our analysis focuses on three separate policy principles that form the guiding logic of status centredness, namely the equivalence in security provision, the mechanisms that protect the socio-economic status in the event of unemployment, and the tripartite mode of funding. We argue that the ‘Hartz Reforms’ have reinforced the logic of the legal modifications since the mid-1990s, cumulating now in a shift away from the middle-class-oriented status-centred approach of social security provision.

scholarly journals Economic strength of Slovakia’s regions

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 139-144
Author(s):  
S. Buchta
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
Regional Impacts ◽  
The Rich

The article deals with the identification and categorisation of economic power of Slovak regions on the base of collecting of unemployment support payment from the employers, employees, and natural persons entrepreneurs into the employment fund. The analysis shows that during the last years, the number of rich regions has decreased and there rises the number of counties which have to be supported by the division of means from the rich counties. The article consequently categorises the development of economically strong and weak counties of Slovakia in the years 1999–2002 and marks the causes of regional polarisation of Slovakia, lying in its economic and structural difficulties. Alongside increasing the regional polarisation in the rate of unemployment, there continues to rise the re-distribution of funds for labour-market policy from the economically stronger regions to the economically weaker regions, which are reliant on socio-spatial solidarity. The course of economic transformation up to date has had significantly different regional impacts and creates unequal chances for people as well as businesses in the afflicted areas.

The Evaluation of Labour Market Policy

Evaluation ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günther Schmid
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy

scholarly journals New system of employment forecasting in Poland

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-90
Author(s):  
Łukasz Arendt
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Econometric Models ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Labour Market Policy ◽  
Market Policy ◽  
On Line ◽  
New System

Abstract The goal of the paper was to describe the system of employment forecasting in Poland and to present forecasts results. The paper described the main assumptions and elements of the system of employment forecasting (the structure of econometric models and on-line forecasting tool). It also elaborated on employment forecasts at national, regional and occupational levels. The analysis of forecasts enabled drawing some conclusions, important from the point of view of the perspectives of the Polish labour market and the labour market policy.

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