Job quality and employer behaviour / edited by Stephen Bazen, ... [e.a.]

This book takes a fresh look at the issue of job quality, analysing employer behaviour and discussing the agenda for policy intervention. The contributions in the volume provide new perspectives on a highly debated and policy relevant issue. Between 1997 and 2002, more than twelve million new jobs were created in the European Union and labour market participation increased by more than eight million. While a good deal of these new jobs have been created in high-tech and/or knowledge-intensive sectors providing workers with decent pay, job security, training and career development prospects, a significant share of jobs, particularly in labour-intensive service sector industries, fail to do so. Increased concern over the quality of jobs has been fostered also by a number of stylized facts, such as increasing earnings inequality, greater job flexibility, labour market deregulation and the decentralization of collective bargaining, coupled with lower unionization and greater competitive pressure. These developments have contributed to a generalized perception of a deterioration of the overall quality of jobs, exposing workers to a disproportionate risk of unemployment and social exclusion.