The experience of negotiated reforms in the Dutch and German welfare states

It is fair to say that the key to international acclaim of the Dutch model is its job miracle (Visser and Hemerijck 1997). Job growth has been at 1.6 per cent per year since 1983, which is four times higher than the European Union average. The Netherlands cut the unemployment rate from almost 14 per cent in 1983 to just over 3 per cent in 2000, far below the dismal 10 per cent average for the European Union. These are impressive figures indeed.