The paper aims at comparing the formal and informal labour markets in the Central and Eastern European new EU Member States and candidate countries of the European Union. First, the current situation of the labour market is described, focusing on the recent developments since the breaking up of...

In this paper we provide a description of the labor market in the Netherlands. Compared to other OECD countries labor force participation is high and the unemployment rate is low (also for young workers). Among the unemployed there are, however, relatively many long-term unemployed workers....

One goal of the public employment service is to facilitate matching between unemployed job seekers and job vacancies; another goal is to monitor job search so as to bring search efforts among the unemployed in line with search requirements. The referral of job seekers to vacancies is one...

This paper studies the determinants and labor market consequences of unemployed workers' wage demands using direct data on the workers' actual wage requests. Our results show that most workers want a wage close to what they earned in their previous jobs, and thus much more than they get in...

One goal of the public employment service is to facilitate matching between unemployed job seekers and job vacancies; another goal is to monitor job search so as to bring search efforts among the unemployed in line with search requirements. The referral of job seekers to vacancies is one...

This paper studies the probability of filling a vacancy, how it varies with the number of unemployed and number of vacancies in the local labor market, and what impact it has on employment. A greater availability of unemployed workers should make it easier for a firm to fill a vacancy but more...

Using annual data for 18 OECD countries over the period 1980-2004, we investigate howlabour and financial factors interact to determine unemployment by estimating a dynamicpanel model using the system generalized method of moments (GMM). We show that theimpact of financial variables depends...

With 1.9 million vacancies available to 2.3 million registered unemployed persons, parity in the German labour market has almost been achieved. Such parity however may produce labour shortages that go far beyond small bottlenecks, which are limited to particular regions and industries. In the...

This paper investigates if conclusions regarding labour market hysteresis differ depending on whether employment or unemployment rates are studied. Applying a range of unit-root tests to monthly data from Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S., we find results for...

This paper collects and reviews information about routes to retirement and exits from the labor force by older workers in Sweden. It gives a concise survey of rules of the major retirement schemes covering disability, sickness and unemployment. Usinglongitudinal micro data from the period...