ADJUSTMENT TO GLOBALISATION: A STUDY OF THE FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY IN EUROPE



An important element in the extent to which the decline in employment opportunities
for manual workers in the footwear sector translates into social exclusion is the
adjustment costs that such workers face in obtaining employment elsewhere in the
economy. If workers released by the footwear sector are quickly re-employed in other
sectors then the decline in employment in the footwear sector is unlikely to be a
significant factor creating social exclusion. On the other hand if footwear workers spend
long periods without work, due perhaps to the sector specificity of the skills that they
possess or locational factors, then the social costs of the decline in the footwear industry
will rise.

Table 7 illustrates the duration of unemployment of two groups of manual footwear
workers in Belgium and compares these with a group of manual workers in the textiles
industry and then with all manual and all non-manual workers in Belgium. As shown in
the table above differing wage levels reflect the skill intensity of manual workers in the
footwear industry which suggests a degree of heterogeneity within the manual labour
force employed within the footwear sector. We have selected the two groups of manual
workers with the highest and lowest levels of skill according the wage rate; respectively,
those involved with (1) cutting, stitching and pinning and (2) those manuals who are
partially involved in the stitching, and undertake perforating and polishing.

The table shows the proportion of total unemployment in each category of worker by
duration. We distinguish primarily between short-term unemployment, defined as those
unemployed for twelve months or less, and the long-term unemployed, those without a
job for more than one year. Thus, for footwear workers previously employed in cutting,
weaving and pinning 75 per cent of the total number of unemployed had been without a
job for more than one year in 1988. The principal conclusions which emerge from these
data for Belgium are that

Since 1988 the proportion of manual footwear workers who have been unemployed
for more than one year has increased whereas the proportion of total manual workers in
Belgium who are long term unemployed has remained constant.

A higher proportion of the more skilled manual footwear workers become long-term
unemployed than do the least skilled manual workers. Those footwear workers who
have the lowest level of skill find alternative employment more quickly than those

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