Irena E.KotowskaInstitute of Statistics and Demography

Warsaw School of Economics

What kind of labour market in Europe is needed when we take into account

expectations and desires of Europeans?

Follow-up seminar of the TRIPL-E DOSE ConferenceFramework Programme and the European Social Fund

for Education and Employment in EuropeWarsaw, 19th of June, 2007

Demographic implications for the labour market policies:

• predicted shortage in the working age population, population and labour force ageing increase in employment rates, especially of those population groups which are underused (young people, women, older workers, disable persons)

• de-institutionalisation and destabilisation of the family a rationale for independent income of women (mothers)

• increasing access to education by women needs to use properly their human capital

• demand for demographic renewal in Europe

Main developments in the contemporary labour market

• diversified forms of employment (job contracts, organisation of work)

• high job competition

• demand for skilled employees who are expected to be highly available and mobile

• instability and discontinuity of employment

• reforms of pension systems which make old-age pensions strongly related to individual savings

• intensification of work driven by technological change (more skills and effort demanded)

destandarisation of a professional life course and needs for more individual involvement in career management

To get a job and to stay in employment requires much more time and effort and competes with other activities, also with family life

the contemporary labour market is becoming family-unfriendly therefore the reconciliation issue highly relevant

dual earning to be considered as a way to diversify risks of financial instability of the family

How families cope with these challenges?

Aliaga Ch., 2005, Gender gaps in the reconciliation between work and family life, Statistics in Focus, Population and Social Conditions, No 4, Eurostat.

Preferences to manage work and family

• demands for both more women in employment and reducing work load

especially when children are young

a high support for female employment combined with still visible preferences

for the family with a woman as a home–maker exclusively, especially

when children are small, 

demand for part-time work diversity of arrangements across population

and across a life cycle

• clear expectations towards the state policy:

the institutional support for parents (child-care facilities, flexible working

time, and part-time work of parents),

the financial support for parents: children allowances, tax regulations, and

parental leaves

Conclusions (research and policy oriented) (1):

• flexibility in the labour market accepted but security desires clearly expressed flexicurity based approach

• reconciliation policies with a large range of options for parents to choose whether to work or not cross-country diversity in policies which should account for the economic and cultural contex

• employers and local governments as important policy agents

Conclusions (research and policy oriented) (2):

• reconceptualisation of work-life (family) balance issues: these must be considered in terms of how both parents can successfully combine their professional and family obligations, rather than focusing solely on how to assist women (mothers)

• redistribution of work and care (a shift towards defamilisation of care)

Labour market and welfare regimes