Since the beginning of the 1980s, an increase in the number of fixed-term employment contracts has been apparent in a number of free-market-oriented economies. This has been accompanied by amendments to the pertinent legislation. From the early to mid-1980s, a number of EC countries initiated...

The role of private employment agencies in job placement has increased in importance in many European countries during the last decade, but in others the public employment services still exercise a monopoly. The following paper offers an assessment of the experiences to date.

In view of high and persistent unemployment in the European industrialised countries there is growing consensus that more flexibility is needed with regard to both the legal and institutional conditions governing the labour market (external flexibility) and the management of human resources...

From the mid-1980s until 2005 the German labour market was characterised by continuous deregulation. In the period of an improving German labour market, the German governments have since imposed measures to re-regulate the labour market in order to strengthen employees' rights. At the same time...

In 1999, “The Economist” referred to Germany with the meaningful headline “The sick man of the euro”. 15 years later, the world is talking about the “German Labour Market Miracle”. In the first part, this paper describes the characteristics of the traditional German labour market,...

In its recent World Employment and Social Outlook, the ILO published estimates of the number of jobs related to global supply chains (GSCs) for 40 countries in 1995–2013. This paper provides a detailed description of the methodology that was used for the estimation and documents the links...

Das Bundesverfassungsgericht hat 2010 die Regelleistungen nach dem Zweiten und Zwölften Buch Sozialgesetzbuch (SGB II und SGB XII) in ihrer damaligen Form für nicht verfassungsgemäß erklärt. Als Reaktion auf das Urteil wurde das Regelbedarfs- Ermittlungsgesetz (RBEG) verabschiedet. In der...

With the completion of the single European market steps are to be made towards eliminating remaining impediments to the free movement of labour between Community countries such as an inadequate flow of information or the non-recognition of educational or training qualifications. How do companies...

From an international comparative point of view the paper deals with driving forces and potential obstacles for the labour market participation of older workers. It goes into depth by focusing on four case studies that seem to be typical for different contexts. Germany, Israel, Italy and Sweden...

Taking an international comparative perspective, this paper deals with driving forces of and potential obstacles to the labor market participation of older workers. It focuses in depth on four case studies that appear to be prototypical for different contexts. Given the high variance of cultures...