ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 presented the key elements of what a market is, including how it can fail. Unemployment and the risk that the market will not ensure full employment is one such possible type of failure. The importance of the labour market in
most economies as a primary allocator of income, for example, is the reason for looking at the labour market here, specifi cally and in some detail. The centrality of the labour market implies a continuous need to try and grasp the varieties of and differences in policies related to it. Is the labour market a market at all, and what is the implication of describing it as a market? This chapter deals with a variety of aspects related to being employed or unemployed, ranging from issues around gaining an income, having social contacts and feeling included, to the impact and consequences for social policy of the increasingly strong demand for the unemployed to become active. The idea of the working poor and active labour market policy, which to a certain extent are contradictory, is also presented, including the relation to a demand-driven fi scal policy.
