The name is absent

Aliki Mouriki

Sustainable employment seems to be exceedingly difficult for particular segments of the work-
force in Greece and Spain, like the young people. First time job seekers encounter great difficulties, as
a result of labour market rigidities but also of a mismatch between the supply and demand of skills
and qualifications. This difficult transition from education to work entails a delayed emancipation of
the youths from the family and their protracted co-residence with the parents. On the other hand,
the high expectations of educated young people for upward social mobility and their aspiration for
spending and leading a comfortable life deters them from accepting any job offer, especially a pre-
carious and low paid job which is often the only available option. This divergence between social and
economic expectations and labour market reality potentially contains the seeds of social unrest.

7.2. Vulnerability

The degree of labour market integration, and hence of vulnerability of those with low quality,
insecure jobs or no job at all, differs strongly between employment systems. Paugam & Zhou (2007)
distinguish between 4 types of employment integration:

a) high quality secure integration, with opportunities for self-development and stability;

b) high quality insecure integration;

c) low quality secure integration; and

d) low quality insecure integration, characterized by cumulative disadvantages and labour market
marginalization.

As pointed out in section 3.3, inclusive welfare regimes are much better placed to reduce the
degree of vulnerability of the weakest segments of the workforce. Not surprisingly, Denmark is the
country in which employment integration is the strongest, with almost 60% of the workforce (as
compared to only 38% in the EU-15) enjoying high quality and secure employment integration. It
does particularly well in ensuring that potentially more vulnerable categories of employees are pro-
tected from poor quality and insecure work. A comparison between Denmark and Spain shows that
a significantly lower share of atypical workers, low skilled workers and workers employed in low-level
(routine) services tend to be concentrated in low quality and insecure jobs in Denmark, than in Spain.
Overall, the Nordic employment regime displays the highest percentage of high quality secure inte-

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