SOLIDAR: Little progress, other policies are needed for a real breakthrough
The first quarterly review of the employment and social situation in Europe in 2015 was published on 13 April by the European Commission. Although the Commission draws a more positive picture than in the previous reviews, SOLIDAR remains skeptical towards different aspects mirrored in the report.
An increase in employment by 1% in 2014 might indicate improvement but it has to be seen that the numbers remain well below their pre-crisis figures and therefore far from the EU 2020 target.
Employment might have recovered by 2.7 million jobs since its recent lowest level observed in the first quarter of 2013. Nevertheless, its growth pace is not yet strong enough to compensate for the loss of 7.4 million jobs during the crisis years, as the report states. Furthermore, most of the jobs have been created in the non-tradable services sector such as health and social services which are important sectors but lack the necessary quality to allow a for long-term perspective of its employees. On the contrary, the growth in tradable services such as agriculture, industry and manufacturing is still stagnating. Moreover, the increase in employment figures remains very different between member states, leading to a further divide between regions in Europe. The picture is everything but rosy, especially if you have a look at the situation of low-income households which are struggling with financial distress. And there is no improvement in sight. As the report states, “Financial distress remains near its historically high levels, well above the levels seen in the previous decade. It currently affects around 15% of the population”.
While the quarterly reviews are snapshots of the current situation in Europe, policy options to increase the situation are provided by other sources. One of them is the persistent call for structural reforms of the labour market, usually consisting of more flexibility and less protection for workers: flexibility of the unemployed to accept any kind of job, flexibility for employers to lay-off workers more easily and the increase of low-standard working contracts such as zero-hour contracts, mini-jobs etc.
SOLIDAR is currently preparing its alternative vision of structural reforms of the labour market that do not endanger social protection levels and allow for high-quality jobs that give workers a long-term perspective.
