Marc De Vos notes how the European Commission in its recommendations for Belgium returns to known structural shortages of the Belgian labour market. He offers a list of concrete policy proposals for the upcoming years.
In this contribution managing director Fons Leroy of the VDAB deals with the diversity policy of the VDAB, the Flemish Employment Service, and this from the perspective of migrant employment seekers. This contribution provides some critical reflections on the current diversity policy.
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Marc De Vos proposes to combine reduced unemployment benefits with enhanced investment towards new work, using the budget of current employment plans for tailor-made support for the unemployed.
Laurent Hanseeuw recalls the issue of factor mobility, and labor mobility in particular, in the constitution of an optimal currency zone. When comparing to the US, European workers are reluctant to move, even in their own state.
Marc De Vos offers perspectives on the differing labour market performances among countries during the Great Recession. The main cause is economics, not labour market policies.
Marc De Vos underscores the perverse effects of temporary unemployment and proposes to reform it into an insurance system that internalizes the costs and pays more attention to activation.
Some entrepreneurs chose for the profession out of necessity while others made a deliberate choice in order to grasp a business opportunity. For the first group, push factors like the small amount of job opportunities triggered by a high unemployment were a sufficient motivation.