ABSTRACT
Recent studies have focused on the complex relation between individual and household employment (Gregg and Wadsworth 2008 and 2010; Brandolini and Viviano 2013; Corluy and Vandenbroucke 2013 and 2014). An important reason for this increased interest is the fact that European countries have failed to reduce relative poverty rates as initially hoped (e.g. de Beer 2007; De Graaf and Nolan 2011). In most countries where employment rates increased strongly (surpassing in some cases the Lisbon target) relative poverty rates increased or remained stagnant. A major factor is that a one-to-one relationship between individual employment rates and household-based poverty rates is often absent (see e.g. Vandenbroucke and Corluy 2013). Therefore, it is important to explore levels (and changes) of household employment, the main drivers of those changes and its relation with individual employment rates.
