European Union Employment Rate
Posted in EU Info on 10/06/2010 11:23 pm by admin
is “flexicurity” a viable solution to unemployment in the UK?
Flexicurity (a portmanteau of flexibility and security) is a welfare state model with a pro-active labour market policy. The model is a combination of easy hiring and firing (flexibility for employers) and high benefits for the unemployed (security for the employees).
The concept developed in Denmark, where negotiations among employers and trade unions during the so-called September Compromise of 1899 (also called Labour Market Constitution) laid the ground for a mutually beneficial (profitable and secure) state.
Current state
Denmark’s current low unemployment figures (2.8% in 2008) and its low social exclusion rates, coupled to output growth of over 3% have led the European Union to adopt flexicurity as its leitmotiv in its European Employment Strategy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexicurity
Denmark’s unemployment rate is currently nearer 4%. They also support their welfare system, and better healthcare than we have in the UK, by a relatively high level of taxation which a lot of people here might not find acceptable. I don’t see people in the UK wanting higher unemployment benefits paid even if it reduced unemployment to a pre-recession level.
Favourite-MaltaMedia: Employment rate in the EU is lowest in Malta