Labour markets in transition: Britain and Germany compared

Citation

(1999), "Labour markets in transition: Britain and Germany compared", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 23 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeit.1999.00323aae.002

Labour markets in transition: Britain and Germany compared

Labour markets in transition: Britain and Germany compared

Peter Elias and Viktor SteinerAnglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial SocietyISBN 1 900834 11 134 pp.£12.00, can be obtained direct from AGF Book Sales, c/o YPS Distribution, 64 Hallfield Road, Layerthorpe, York YO3 7XQ. Tel: +44 (0) 1904 430033

Keywords Germany, Labour market, Unemployment, United Kingdom

Does the experience of unemployment bring about a further "proneness" to unemployment? In other words, does unemployment cause unemployment? The answer to this question can help us understand why unemployment might become more concentrated among those who have previously experienced unemployment ­ the group which is at risk of "social exclusion".

This important issue is analysed in this report by Professor Peter Elias from the Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick and Dr Viktor Steiner from the Centre for European Economic Research (Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung) in Mannheim.

Based on a research project funded by the Anglo-German Foundation, this report examines recent changes in the British and German labour markets by comparing and contrasting the experience of unemployment and the patterns of earnings inequality through a period in which both economies experienced significant transitions: Germany's integration of the eastern Länder via economic and social union, and Britain's transition from a mixed state/private "administered" economy in the mid-1970s to the current deregulated "flexible" economy of the 1990s.

By analysing labour market dynamics through this period of transition the authors attempt to shed further light on the operation of the labour market, particularly the mechanisms by which people become unemployed, how they "escape" from unemployment or the extent to which they remain unemployed.

Additionally, and in recognition of the fact that unemployment and low pay may be linked, the report examines the trends and variations in earning inequality experienced in the two countries over the last decade.