Tilburg University,

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Job mobility and Work Security Trade-Off or
Double-Bind2. Flexicurity in a life course
perspective
Conceptualization and Measurement of Flexicurity
in a Comparative Perspective Seminar
Flexicurity Network Copenhagen, June 9,
2006 Ruud . J. A. Muffels Ton Wilthagen

• Tilburg University,
• Department of Social and Cultural Studies / OSA
  Institute for Labour Studies

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Research focus in both projects

• Exploring the role and performance of welfare
  states / policy regimes in maintaining
  flexibility and work and income security using
  longitudinal data (paneldata lifecourse-data)
• Based on a dynamic approach define flexicurity
  not in a static way but in a lifecourse
  perspective
• Define a broad set of dynamic outcome
  indicators on both flexibility and security. Not
  EPL but tenure or job mobility should be used as
  indicators

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Life course proofing of flexicurity arrangements

• Life-course proofing long-term effects of
  working time arrangements such as part-time work,
  career breaks (care and educational leave
  schemes) and working in non-standard jobs.
• Short and long-term effects on future wages and
  income on participation in employment on
  occupational level of jobs (careers), on job
  quality, life satisfaction and health
• Main underlying question Is there a trade-off
  or a double bind relationship between the aims
  of creating a flexible labor market and
  safeguarding employment security for all people
  over their life-time?

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Dynamic indicators

• Flexibility
• Job-to-job mobility (internal, external)
• Professional status mobility
• Contractmobility
• Work Security
• Employment stability unempl. spells
• Exit and (Re)-Entry w.r.t. employment working
  hours quality of work
• Income security well-being quality of life
  social participation integration (e.g. spells
  of low/high income, well-being etc.)

5
Policy indicators availability and use of policy
measures

• Availability (opportunity set)
• EPL Labour Market and Social Security Policies
  Firms HRM policies Self-regulation (market
  individual civil society)
• Usage/take-up
• Job tenure usage of LM/SS arangements Working
  Time Options Vocational Training Quality of
  Working Conditions
• Construction of policy index on availability and
  usage
• Outcomes/effects assess differences across
  countries and changes in policies over time find
  homogenous clusters use clusters in job mobility
  and exit/re-entry analyses

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Table 1 The flexicurity combination of
employment regulation and work/income security in
different employment regimes
   
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Two contrasting perspectives

• Trade-off thesis trade-off between flexibility
  and security due to increased competition and a
  process of skill-biased technological change
• _ Flexicurity thesis double bind between
  flexibility and security due to the
  knowledge-based economy, flexibility is required
  to be competitive and to afford work/income
  security which on its turn is required to sustain
  high levels of flexibility

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Fig. 1. The theoretical relationship between
flexibility and security
High work security (exit low / (re-)entry high)
II Trade-off
I Flexicurity
Low flexibility (low job mobility)
High flexibility (high job mobility)
III Inflexicurity
IV Trade-off
Low work security (exit high / (re-)entry low)
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Work security above EU-average
Corporatist, continental
Social-democratic
I Flexicurity (activating policies, high
employability)
II Trade-off (tightly regulated LM, active LM
policies)
Australian/ antipodean
Job Mobility below EU-average
Job Mobility above EU-average
Anglo-Saxon, Liberal
III Inflexicurity (tightly regulated, segmented
LM)
Transition countries
IV Trade-off (no regulation, no active LM
policies)
Southern, traditionalist
Work security below EU-average
Fig. 2 The contended location of the welfare
regimes in the flexicurity quadrant
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Measures using ECHP

• Job Mobility (JM)
• Occupational mobility JM (based on occupational
  class EGP
• Contract Mobility CM (mobility between
  employment contracts flexible job permanent
  job self-employment)
• Work Security (WS)
• Staying in employment
• Moving into more secure employment between t and
  t1 for each of the pairs of years of observation
• Add Income security Working conditions

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Ten flexicurity indicators

• Flexibility
• 1. Internal job-to-job mobility
• 2. External job mobility
• 3. Occupational class mobility
• 4. Wage mobility (based on hourly real earnings)
• 5. Contract mobility
• Work and income security
• 6. Working time flexibility
• 7. Labour market stability and mobility
• 8. Job quality. Maintaining or moving into a
  better job
• 9. Social protection related mobility
• 10. Work-life balance related mobility (caring
  educaton)

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Measure for Work Security changes

•  
• oorigin state ddestination state mnumber of
  destination states
• o,d 1 permanent job 2 flexible job 3
  self-employment 4 out-of-work
• - 100 nobody occupies a job because all
  people moved out into non-work during the
  observation period
• 100 nobody stayed not-working because
  everybody got a job during the observation period

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Fig. 3 Indices for job mobility (JM), contract
mobility (CM) and work security (WS) by country
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Fig. 4 Indices for job mobility (JM), contract
mobility (CM) and work security (WS) by regime
type
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Work security above EU-average
DK
NL
Trade-off
Flexicurity
SD
UK
LIB
IRL
AU
COR
GE
BE
PO
FR
Job Mobility above EU-average
Job Mobility below EU-average
FIN
SOU
IT
Inflexicurity
SP
GR
Trade-off
Work security below EU-average
Fig. 5 The empirical derived location of twelve
European countries and four regime types within
the flexicurity quadrant
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Conclusions and discussion

• Define dynamic outcome indicators for measuring
  the attained balance between flexibility and
  security
• Define a broad set of dimensions of the
  flexicurity concept like the ten dimensions
  proposed here
• Shift the focus from short-term to long-term or
  life-course indicators and measure the effects of
  particular life course events on future careers
  (using panel and LC data)
• Apply the measures on comparative data with a
  sufficient number of countries to find country
  clusters and to test whether policies matter and
  whether regimes change over time