Abstract

Adaptive welfare and labour market reforms might lead us to assume that (longterm)unemployed as well as inactive men and women in post-industrial labour markets are more likely to make the transition into employment than has previously been the case. Based on an analysis of European Labour Force Survey data we explore the empirical evidence for such a claim since the mid-1990s in 13 EU-countries. This sets the stage for a second question: is an increasingly inclusive labour market associated with a reduction in job quality, as measured by contract type and wage inequality for those recently having made the transition from non-employment to employment?
The end product of the project will be a book about the institutional reconfiguration of the management of the risk of unemployment, i.e. how, to which extent and in which direction the nature of unemployment protection has changed since the early 19990s in 13 European countries.