Economic Restructuring And Labour Market Developments In The New Eu Member States

This publication presents recent evidence and analytical work on the impact and future perpectives of demographic trends in the workforce, taking also into account education, skills and geographical mobility.

This book presents a series of extremely stimulating analyses of the process of corporate restructuring in the new Member States of the EU. Particularly noteworthy is the book's focus on the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) that have joined the EU since 2004, an area which has not been prominent in the research on corporate restructuring conducted in Western Europe in the last twenty years. As with their Asian counterparts, these States have generally been perceived as a threat to employment in Western Europe due to the former's benefiting from outsourcing away from the latter. By moving east, the book allows for a different perspective on the restructuring process, by placing it in the context of both Europe and the numerous changes affecting the CEECs. The book seeks to understand the impact of European- and national-level policies on the concept of restructuring, the role of the «acquis communautaire», and the place of social and political actors in the process of change in the context of new Member States, where multinational firms have developed mobility and establishment strategies within the context of broader European and global ones. The density of this collection, its wealth in terms of substantive teachings, and its use of a comparative and multidisciplinary approach that links law, political science, sociology and economics make it an essential resource for those wishing to understand restructuring in the European space after the enlargements of 2004 and 2007 and the impact of European policies and the European Social Model.

Floro Ernesto Caroleo and Francesco Pastore This book was conceived to collect selected essays presented at the session on “The Labour Market Impact of the European Union Enlargements. A New Regional Geography of Europe?” of the XXII Conference of the Italian Association of Labour Economics (AIEL). The session aimed to stimulate the debate on the continuity/ fracture of regional patterns of development and employment in old and new European Union (EU) regions. In particular, we asked whether, and how different, the causes of emergence and the evolution of regional imbalances in the new EU members of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) are compared to those in the old EU members. Several contributions in this book suggest that a factor common to all backward regions, often neglected in the literature, is to be found in their higher than average degree of structural change or, more precisely, in the hardship they expe- ence in coping with the process of structural change typical of all advanced economies. In the new EU members of CEE, structural change is still a consequence of the continuing process of transition from central planning to a market economy, but also of what Fabrizio et al. (2009) call the “second transition”, namely that related to the run-up to and entry in the EU.

Will 'making a Living' remain a dream for the deprived and excluded? Jobs are one of Europe's most important problems. Employment provides the basic means of distributing wealth in society, in providing for families, and ensuring pensions for the elderly. Yet unemployment, and increasingly 'non-employment', continues at near record levels in the European Union. Making a Living in Europe shows how the culture of work has been transformed in the industrialised nations of the EU. Exploring the relationship between employment change, society and economic restructuring, the shift toward 'flexible' work for women in services, away from traditional industrial jobs for men, is demonstrated within three key sectors: business services, retailing and tourism. The outcome of change is discussed in terms of shifts of people and jobs from urban to rural areas. Europe must be understood in the context of the new Europe, of change in the USA and of global change. Drawing on examples from UK and European Regions and USA, the author challenges long-standing assumptions about changes in economy and society and highlights the need for stronger local and European policies to reduce inequality at large and contribute positively to local people's struggles to make a living in Europe.

The emergence of open unemployment is an unavoidable consequence of postcommunist transition. Some countries-notably in the former Soviet Union-initially slowed economic contraction. But in the longer run slower reformers have generally sustained deeper and more prolonged recessions than faster reforming central European countries. Moreover, the initially low unemployment rates in the former Soviet Union are now rising, and may stabilise at higher post-transition equilibrium rates than in Central Europe.

This timely book assesses how Europe’s welfare states have dealt with the challenges of globalisation and the financial crisis. It asks whether the European Union has adopted a general strategy for dealing with four major threats to the sustainable development of European societies: the employability of a growing number of redundant workers, an aging population, low birth rates and the persistent problem of gender inequality. The book will be an important read for social policy scholars, particularly those focusing on European welfare states, how they differ and lessons to be learnt from them. It also highlights key lessons from a broad range of case studies to help policymakers in understanding how and where improvements may be made in the future.

This publication presents recent evidence and analytical work on the impact and future perpectives of demographic trends in the workforce, taking also into account education, skills and geographical mobility.