Description

Employment policy has become high politics. Expectations are high. So are the dilemmas in reaching balanced and robust solutions. The main theme of this book is whether employment policy can deliver and live up to the high expectations. Can more and better jobs for all be created without increasing levels of inequality? Can more flexible labour markets be created while maintaining - or even enhancing - the job and employment security of workers? Can private providers deliver 'better and cheaper' services than the former public employment service, and what are the implications of these new 'quasi-markets' for employment services? Is life-long learning and the knowledge economy the solution in an age of globalisation and outsourcing of low-skilled and low-wage jobs? Will national governments - and not least the European Union - deliver on its promises? We approach these questions from an inter-disciplinary and comparative perspective by focusing on four main themes: ** The European employment strategy and activation policies; ** Contracting out of public employment services; ** Employment policy from a flexicurity perspective; ** Life-long learning. The book brings together a group of well-known researchers from a range of different disciplines and compares employment policies of different countries. In bringing together state-of-the-art research on employment policies - and especially the new trends of flexicurity and contracting out - the book will appeal to both academics, policy makers and civil servants interested employment policy.