Flexible Labor Market

SWOT Strength: Flexible Labor Market
The Netherland's flexible labor market increases job opportunities for its' economy.

"As a consequence, these labor flexibility measures induce a strong job growth in the Netherlands, starting at the end of the 1980s.Between 1983 and 1997, the number of jobs increased by 1.8 percent per year, four times the EU average (OECD 1998). This job growth was to a large extent result in the rise of flexible employment. In fact, the Netherlands had the highest increase in the flexible employment in the EU in the period from 1985 to 1995 (de Grip et al. 1997). This increase was particularly due to the rise of part-time jobs. In the Netherlands, such jobs do not, however, necessarily have the characteristics of typical flexible employment. Part-time jobs cannot be considered here as marginal labor, in contrast to some other European countries and the United States. Many part-time jobs are permanent positions, are voluntarily chosen, and protect against unfair dismissal in the same way as full- time jobs (Remery et al. 2002). In addition, the huge increase in part-time work is closely related to the late rapid arrival of married women into the Dutch labor force and the lack of sufficient child-care provisions (Visser 2002), rather than being a means of reducing (youth) unemployment. Nevertheless, part-time employment does contribute greatly to increase labor market flexibility in the Netherlands.

Flexible labor markets tend to create jobs more jobs, because the cost of layout off someone is reduced; therefore, the potential risk of hiring someone is also reduced."

Source:http://www.socsci.ru.nl/~maartenw/flexcareer%20chapter.pdf