Employment and Labour Market Impact of COVID-19 Crisis - Part 1 – Analysis in Poland

The world is changing really fast. This speed is caused by urbanization, technological development and the increasing demand for energy. Such changes have a direct impact on enterprises which function in the world of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) with numerous surprises in the form of “black swans”, i.e. rare and unpredictable events. The modern history has not seen such a lockdown as the one caused by the coronavirus. Hairdressers, cosmeticians, restaurants, transportation and tourism are particularly affected by the negative effects of the pandemic. But while some lose, others profit: growth can be observed in the areas of e-commerce, courier shipping and parcel lockers. The article analyzes the labor market in covid times. The image of enterprises and employees of the future was discussed. The paper is an introduction part of an international research conducted as part of cooperation between Universities from Poland, Pakistan, Iraq and the Philippines.

Scars that Never Heal: Dualisation and Youth Employment Policies in Spain from the Great Recession to the Corona Crisis

This article analyses the evolution of the dual labour market in Spain in the post-crisis and provides a first assessment of the labour market impact of the Covid-19 crisis. With the only exception of reducing the distance between the regulation of temporary and permanent contracts, the reforms introduced during the great re-cession and the post-crisis period have not only failed to reduce inequalities in the labour market, but have amplified some of them in interaction with austerity policies. Policies targeting young workers have delivered limited success in improving the position of the most disadvantaged, and more generally, to reduce dualisation as temporary employment remains very high whilst employment conditions of younger groups have deteriorated and become more widespread among those with higher educational attainment.

Fordelingspolitikkens nye ånd – om mulighederne for kritik i konkurrencestaten

Med sin introduktion af begrebet ’konkurrencestat’ i en dansk kontekst tilbød Ove Kaj Pedersen et nyt teoretisk perspektiv på, hvordan den universelle danske velfærdsstat i et vist omfang er blevet erstattet af en neoliberal konkurrencestat baseret på markedstænkning. I denne artikel forsøger jeg at udbygge denne forståelse af konkurrencestaten ved at analysere udviklingen i Danmark fra velfærdsstat til konkurrencestat ved hjælp af Boltanski og Chiapellos teori om kapitalismens nye ånd. Igennem denne analyse søger jeg for det første at vise, at de værdier, som konkurrencestaten henviser til, når den retfærdiggør sin fordelingspolitik, ikke kun kan forstås som udtryk for markedstænkning. De må også i høj grad forstås som udtryk for idealiseringen af fleksibilitet, kreativitet og inklusion i arbejdsnetværk, som Boltanski og Chiapello identificerer som centrale i kapitalismens nye ånd, og som har rødder i venstrefløjens kapitalismekritik. For det andet er formålet med artiklen at diskutere, hvilke negative konsekvenser idealiseringen af fleksibilitet og omstillingsparathed samt det store fokus på kontinuerligt at opkvalificere borgere kan risikere at have for borgere og offentligt ansattes mulighed for at forholde sig kritisk til konkurrencestatens moralske legitimitet. ENGELSK ABSTRACT Jacob Didia Jensen: The new spirit of allocation policy With his introduction of the concept ‘competition state’ in Denmark, Ove Kaj Pedersen offered a new perspective on how the universal Danish welfare state has been partially replaced by a neoliberal competition state based on market logic. In this article, I seek to expand this idea of the competition state by analysing the Danish development from welfare state to competition state through Boltanski and Chiapello’s theory of a new spirit of capitalism. In this analysis, I seek to show, firstly, that the values used by the competition state to justify its allocation policy cannot only be understood as an expression of market logic. They must also to be understood as expressions of the idealisation of flexibility, creativity and inclusion in work-based networks, that Boltanski and Chiapello identify as central in the new spirit of capitalism, and which have roots in the left-wing critique of capitalism. Secondly, the article discusses how negative consequences the idealisation of flexibility, adaptability and the focus on continuously upgrading the skills of citizens in order to ensure their inclusion on the labour market impact on the ability of citizens and public employees to critically reflect on the moral legitimacy of the competition state. Keywords: competition state, allocation policy, justification, critique, new spirit of capitalism, Boltanski and Chiapello

Labour market impact of four recessions on women and men in Greece: Comparative analysis in a long term perspective

<p>The current economic crisis in Greece has<br />produced a dramatic fall in male and female<br />employment and driven unemployment to<br />historically unprecedented levels. This article<br />compares gender differences in the labour<br />market impact of the current crisis with those<br />of the three previous recessions: 1974, 1980-83,<br />1990-1993. We have found large discrepancies in<br />the gender impact between the four recessions.<br />These are due to differences in their nature and<br />duration, the sectors and industries hit each<br />time and the trends of women’s labour force<br />participation before the eruption of the crisis.<br />The structural nature of the current crisis and the<br />negative repercussions of the deep and prolonged<br />recession on the services sector that concentrates<br />the great bulk of female employment explain<br />why the gendered labour market impact of the<br />current crisis is different from that of previous<br />recessions. Male employment has been more<br />hit than female employment until now, but<br />the spread of the recession to services reversed<br />the long term trend of increase in the female<br />employment rate. By contrast, in all three<br />previous recessions, the tertiary sector had played<br />a protective, compensating and enhancing role<br />for women’s employment.</p>