Labour markets in post-crisis Europe: liberalisation, deregulation, precarisation

This chapter examines labour market policy in the European Union in the wake of the 2008/9 global financial crisis and discusses how labour market measures have prioritized economic competitiveness and wage moderation as national governments have sought to reign in public deficits. However, the chapter also emphasises that more than a decade after the start of the global financial crisis, European labour markets continue to struggle with issues of unemployment, underemployment, bogus self-employment and job quality. The scale of these issues varies between countries and country groups. European level attempts to address the employment effects of the crisis continue to be informed by the pre-crisis emphasis on flexicurity and therefore continue to rely on supply side solutions to labour market problems, with social concerns remaining subordinate to economic concerns in European policy making.