Transcript Employment, labour market and free movement of labour in the EU

Employment, labour market
and free movement of labour
in the EU
JSM508 European social policy
14 April, 2008
Liudmila, Antonio, Angela, Mirza (Group A2)
Overview
 Employment/unemployment in the EU
(what EU does about it and how
efficient?)
 Labour market, free movement of
labour
What is
employment/unemployment?
 Employee – a person employed for wages
or salary
 Employment – the action of giving work to
someone; person’s work or profession
 Unemployed - without a paid job but
available to work
 Unemployment – the number or
proportion of unemployed people
Oxford dictionary
Employment in Europe I
Overall performance
Employment
rates
2006 (%)
Objective for
2010 (%)
Overall
64.3
70
Female
57.2
60
Older
workers
43.5
50
Employment in Europe II
(Commission’s Employment in Europe 2007 Report)
 increased in all 27 Member States with over 4 mln
 youth unemployment - major challenge (behind
U.S., Canada, Japan)
 older workers employment rate is up
 youth and older workers are two problematic
groups
 inequalities in access to continuing vocational
training (CVT); government intervention needed
 labour income share is influenced by technological
progress, openness to trade etc. Not all skills
categories benefit
 flexicurity – can bring more and more secure jobs
Flexicurity
 a combination of flexible labour
markets and a high level of
employment and income security
 approach oriented less towards the
protection of jobs, and more towards
the protection of people
 in line with the central elements of
the EU strategy for growth and jobs
EU strategy I
 “Lisbon Strategy” 2000 - a new strategy to
modernize Europe focused on more and
better jobs and growth. 2 main reasons:
 to fight unemployment
 to cope with demographic change
 Simplified and relaunched in 2005. 2 main
targets by 2010:
 total (public and private) investment of 3% of
Europe’s GDP in research and development
 raise employment rate to 70% (for women 60%, for older workers - 50%)
EU strategy II - instruments
INTEGRATED GUIDELIINES FOR GROWTH AND JOBS (2008-2010)
Employment guidelines
 (17) Implement employment policies aimed at achieving full
employment, improving quality and productivity at work, and
strengthening social and territorial cohesion.
 (18) Promote a lifecycle approach to work.
 (19) Ensure inclusive labour markets, enhance work attractiveness,
and make work pay for job seekers, including disadvantaged people
and the inactive.
 (20) Improve matching of labour market needs.
 (21) Promote flexibility combined with employment security and reduce
labour market segmentation, having due regard to the role of the
social partners.
 (22) Ensure employment-friendly labour cost developments and wage
setting mechanisms.
 (23) Expand and improve investment in human capital.
 (24) Adapt education and training systems in response to new
competence requirements.
EU strategy III – instruments 2
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Mutual learning program – exchange of
best practices in 4 main areas:
increasing adaptability of workers and
enterprises;
attracting more people to the labour
market;
investing more and more effectively in
human capital;
ensuring effective implementation of
reforms through better governance.
EU strategy IV - indicators
 to assess Member States' progress
in implementing the Employment
guidelines
 agreed on annual basis
 for 2008 - two sets: 1. monitoring
indicators, 2 analysis indicators
Indicators 2
 Analysis indicators (selected ex.)
 Employment impact of parenthood
 Dispersion of regional employment and
unemployment rates
 Employment in newly established enterprises
 Investment by enterprises in training of adults etc.
 Monitoring indicators (some ex.)
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Employment/unemployment rate & growth
Growth in labour productivity
Gender pay gap
Long-term unemployment rate etc.
How efficient?
 The disappearance of mass unemployment is not the
result of a shrinking pool of labour; in fact the average
employment rate in the European Union has increased
by more than 6 per cent in 10 years. This is the only
area in which Europe is approaching the ambitious
economic targets set at the Lisbon summit in 2000.
Financial Times, 01/16/2008
 … the EU has created almost 6.5m jobs in the past two
years and 5m more are expected by 2009. Average
unemployment is expected to fall to below 7 per cent
this year, the lowest since the mid-1980s. The Lisbon
benchmark of getting 70 per cent of the adult population
into work by 2010, which escaped the EU’s recent purge
of targets, no longer looks impossible.
Financial Times, 03/07/2008
Labour Market
and Labour Force Mobility
Part 2
General assessment
 Europe still has about twice the
unemployment rate of the United States
 There's a need for flexibility
 The old Europe has a problem
 The right to mobility for workers is one the
fundamental "four freedoms" of the
European Treaty
 Worker's mobility is a driver for the
promotion of a comprehensive set of EU
social legislation
Positive macro-economic effects
 GDP growth
 lower long-term unemployment
 higher employment rates
Positive micro-economic effects
 access to new cultures and languages
 increased adaptability to a quickly
changing work environment
 increased job satisfaction
Fundamental Freedom
 Free movement of persons is one of the
fundamental freedoms guaranteed by
community law (Article 39 of the EC Treaty)
and is also an essential element of
European citizenship
 Community rules on free movement of
workers also apply to member states of the
European Economic Area (ie to Iceland,
Liechtenstein and Norway)
The plan
 The first two-year period specified in the 2+3+2year scheme expired on 30 April 2006. The
member states have to declare themselves again
on this issue in May 2009.
 Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU on 1 January
2007, their citizens are also be subject to a 2+3+2
scheme. This means that all labor movement
restrictions between the EU's present 27 member
states will be lifted by 1 January 2014.
United Kingdom
and the free movement
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In 2004 together with Sweden and Ireland, the only one
not to impose transitional measures on EU-8 workers in
the first place.
Its open-borders policy led to an estimated labor
immigration of 450.000 to 600.000 within the two-anda-half years following the May 2004 enlargement; this
amounts to about 30-fold of what was previously expected.
In spite of the undoubtedly positive impact that the
immigration of EU-8 workers
The UK government decided on 24 October 2006 not to
apply a similarly liberal scheme to Romanian and
Bulgarian job-seekers
Under the scheme announced, only a few experts and
20,000 unskilled workers for the food processing and
agriculture industries will be allowed into Britain
EU Treaties and Reports
May 1999
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November 2000
March 2000
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July 2002
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June 2003
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July 2004
December 2007
Amsterdam Treaty EU´ commitment to work together in the
field of JHA
EU Council, Tampere I Comprehensive guidelines on
immigration and asylum policies on partnership with countries of
origin.
Communication on Community immigration policy
Lisbon Strategy
Goal: “to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledgebased economy in the world; sustain economic growth with more
and better jobs and greater social cohesion”
Danish Presidency, Copenhagen
“Integration into the labour market "Conference
Thessaloniki European Council
Request on Annual Report on Migration and Integration in Europe
First EC Annual Report on Migration and Integration
Treaty of Lisbon
member-states have an exclusive right to determine the numbers
of foreign nationals admitted to their territory and that
cooperation on integration is upplementary and not about the
harmonization of laws.
The Polish Plumber
 5-13000 people per year were
estimated on historic data, and in the
worst case is not likely to be large
 600000 of Polish workers came to
Britain since Poland's accession to the
European Union
 The growth of British population is
highest in 40 years, and has reached
the 60 million mark
Chart 1: Migration to/from the UK
Chart 2: Country of origin of
migrant workers
Chart 3: Reason for recruiting
migrants
Chart 4:
Most common A8 jobs
Positive aspect of migration
 Britain benefited with an estimated 6
billion pounds to the nations economy
in 2006
 Inflation pressure was reduced by
increasing supply of goods and
services
Problems with the migration
 As Poland's economy develops,
immigration slows done, causing
labor shortages in Britain
 Not restricting themselves just to
cities, migration caused problems in
areas which are not used to migration
 Pushing up housing costs and
increasing crime rates
Brain Drain
 Britain is currently facing the biggest brain
drain in 50 years
 3.247 million British-born people living
abroad, 1.1 million are highly-skilled
graduates
 Poland in an effort to reverse the brain
drain will not tax Polish workers who paid
there taxes abroad since 2002
Circular migration
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A key dilemma facing EU governments is how to prevent
their migration policies triggering a so-called brain drain
from poor countries.
On the one hand, EU governments want skilled immigrants
to plug gaps in their local labor market. On the other hand,
a country that loses its best and brightest is less likely to
develop its economy, which might trigger future migration
flows of the unskilled and illegal kind.
One way of addressing both issues is to encourage more
‘circular migration’.
This means helping migrants to move to-and-fro
between their homelands and foreign places of work.
In the end only Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom
opened up their labor markets to workers from the ten new
Member States.
Conclusion
 EUROPEAN MIGRATION PACT
 The interior ministers of Britain, France, Germany,
Italy, Poland and Spain meet every six months to
strengthen practical co-operation between the EU’s
largest domestic security and immigration services
 These countries want the EU to adopt a ‘European
pact on migration’ in October 2008, during the
French presidency.
 A European approach on migration, instead of 27
often contradictory immigration and asylum systems,
one common system
Sources
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http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/employment_analysis/employ_en.htm
Joint Employment Report 2007/2008
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/08/st07/st07169.en08.pdf
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE SPRING EUROPEAN
COUNCIL. INTEGRATED GUIDELINES FOR GROWTH AND JOBS (2008-2010)
http://ec.europa.eu/growthandjobs/pdf/european-dimension-200712-annualprogress-report/200712-annual-report-integrated-guidelines_en.pdf
http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/briefing_813.pdf
Freedom of Movement for Workers from Central and Eastern Europe: Experiences
in Ireland and Sweden. Report No. 5 May/2006 Publisher: Swedish Institute for
European Policy Studies
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=//EP//NONSGML+REPORT+A6-2006-069+0+DOC+PDF+V0//EN&language=EN
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2006/com2006_0048en01.pdf
http://www.ecas.org/file_uploads/1182.pdf
Europe is caught mid-river in labour reforms, Tito Boeri, Financial Times,
01/16/2008
Europe must use its head to boost research, Bruno van Pottelsberghe, Financial
Times, 03/07/2008