Do you feel like an insider? Job security and preferences for Flexibilization across Europe

Abstract

The paper analyses the determinants of public opinion on flexibilisation of work contracts. While the literature on new labour market divides has rapidly expanded, few contributions directly look at employees’ demands for labour market regulation. By using a multi‐level data set for 25 European countries, we find that the subjectively assessed job security is an important and valuable predictor of preferences for flexibilisation. In particular, those with very low and very high levels of perceived job security prefer flexibilisation compared to those with medium levels. We also show that the effect is stronger in countries with stricter employment protection legislation. The findings contribute to the literature on new divides of labour market politics in several ways. First, our empirical operationalization is related directly to the core of insider‐outsider theory, the protection of work contracts. Second, subjective assessment of employment security yields important complementary insights into a debate usually focusing on objective measures. Third, we find that the (subjective) divide is context dependent; it is much more visible in countries where employment protection regulation is strong.

Security or autonomy? A comparative analysis of work values and labor market policies in different European welfare states

“…Because of its export orientation the industry sector is especially affected by globalization and financial crisis. As wages and job security within the industry usually are high, these processes challenge the high level of security of the labor market insiders working in the industry sector, who used to be sheltered from labor market risks to a higher degree compared with labor market outsiders, who did not enjoy such high protection levels (Duman & Kemmerling, 2020;Rueda, 2005;Schwander, 2019). Accordingly, we would expect that a higher industry share of a welfare state goes along with a higher demand of security as the labor market insiders want to defend their advantageous and beneficial position on the labor market.…”

Feeling Insecure and Blaming Immigrants: relationship between subjective risks and welfare chauvinism

“…First component looks at the likelihood of unemployment in the near future. It is well known that job loss can have dramatic material and immaterial consequences for employees, and subjective assessment if such a risk might significantly influence policy preferences (Duman and Kemmerling, 2020). Hence, we argue that the greater subjective unemployment risks would translate into negative attitudes towards immigrants even when individuals are not essentially in disadvantaged positions.…”

The gender dimension of outsiderness in Western Europe: a comparative cross-model analysis

“…Finally, other studies have conceptualized the insider/outsider divide considering the workers' subjective evaluation of the labour market, that is their perception of re-employability or, more in general, their perceived labour market and job insecurity (e.g. Duman and Kemmerling, 2020; Lowe, 2020).…”