Flexicurity as one model of labour market policy

Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1,3, Berlin School of Economics and Law, language: English, abstract: Nowadays, living and working conditions of EU citizens alter in a very fast pace due to globalization, accelerated technological progress and demographic change. Therefore,challenges European economies have to cope with are for example: - Increasing international trade and thus worldwide economic integration,- An expansion on global reserves of workforce, - An adjustment of labour division between industrialized and emerging markets and - A successive significance of human capital in course of a community of knowledge. On the one hand, to remain competitive this change1 means that firms within EU countries have to establish new markets while the requirements on mastering production processes and forms of organization increase. As far as employees are concerned, they have to be willed and capable to tune in to those labour market changes. Thus, life long learning and mobility become the very basics of success. In the same time higher pressure on wages and employment of low level qualified people can be seen in course of ongoing processes in job specialization. On the other hand, there has been an establishment of awareness within Europe of a common social model which carries the characteristics of: - Social cohesion, solidarity and the abatement of social poverty and discrimination, - Securing general access to a health and education system as well as broad social covering and - A significant role of the public sector to provide the necessary infrastructure. This shows that social security within the European society is strongly anchored which forms a certain constant in the approach of new reforms. Hence, flexicurity as an essence of the adaptability pillar of the EES has the task to strike the balance of a more flexible labour market to preserve European competitiveness with security of the social model. To achieve the objective of the Lisbon Strategy of full employment, enhancing quality and productivity at work as well as to underpin social and territorial cohesion flexibility and security are absolute mutually supportive. That is, to remain competitive only a dynamic, innovation oriented and business friendly economy provides those necessary resources that enable also the maintenance of social governmental structures.