Introduction

In ch. 1 the concept of detachment from the labour market was explored in relation to the UK. There we saw some of the limitations of conventional measures of unemployment and located the non-employed population in the context of the changing structure of the UK labour market.

Chapter 2 turns to comparative assessment of labour market detachment. The chapter opens with evidence about economic inactivity and unemployment in a number of other economies, and looks at some evidence about ‘non-standard’ employment. It goes on to give an indication of how some other states have addressed these issues, exploring the role played by both national and European policy on employment, and identifying some differences in policy response and in welfare systems. Having considered this broader international context, the third part of the chapter outlines recent developments in the employment policy of the European Union (EU), which seeks explicitly to address labour market detachment and ‘early exit’. Finally, the chapter concludes by considering a number of explanations of labour market change and welfare policy, and the political ideologies which support them.

Statistical comparisons

Unemployment

In 1999, more than one in eight of the 8 million European men who were unemployed according to the ILO definition (see ch. 1) lived in the UK– and the UK was one of five EU states in which over a million men were defined as unemployed. Male unemployment was thus a very significant and costly social issue for the EU and for several other member states.