ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the labour market characteristics in the various countries, in order to identify risk groups and pressures on relevant policies. A scalar differentiation of labour market policies might structure different regulatory contexts and in this way include or exclude particularly risky profiles. The chapter analyses that the unemployment insurance provisions considering access criteria, amounts and duration of the benefit payments. It also analyses the relative position of active labour market policies (ALMPs) in the entire area of labour policies, according to comparative secondary data and research results from vignettes. The ALMPs require a thick networking context, given that their success is based on the ability to bridge passive and active measures and to gather actors in the economic system and in civil society, to help recipients find their way into the labour market. The chapter discusses the main issues arising from developments and rescaling processes in this policy area.
