Euro area labour markets and the crisis

The article summarises the main findings of the Eurosystem’s 2012 Structural Issues Report (SIR) and highlights some specific aspects for Belgium. It describes the main developments on euro area labour markets since the start of the Great Recession and its impact on mismatches and long-term unemployment. The ensuing policy conclusions refer to detrimental factors like wage rigidities, hysteresis and labour market segmentation and aim at increasing labour market flexibility so as to facilitate the ECB’s price-stability-oriented monetary policy.