ABSTRACT
Employment patterns have undergone fundamental changes across the developed world in the past two to three decades. As advanced economies have become more service based, the profile of risks generated by the operation of their labour markets has gradually evolved. Long-term unemployment and skill shortages, which were only marginal problems in the golden age of industrial capitalism, have become far more prevalent. Contributory unemployment insurance, the fundamental institution for the regulation of labour market risks in most of the post-war welfare states in Europe, appears to offer an inadequate response to such problems, and is occasionally even accused of compounding them.
