Swedish Labor Market Question -- Dennis Collentine are you there

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I asked Doug Henwood a week or so ago if the Swedish system of
retraining workers still existed?  He thought that it did.  This article
seems to suggest that it might not.

"Temporary Work in Turbulent Times: The Swedish Experience"

       BY:  BERTIL HOLMLUND
               Uppsala University
               Department of Economics
               CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo
               Institute for Economic Research)
            DONALD STORRIE
               Gothenburg University (Goteborg Universitet)
               Department of Economics

Document:  Available from the SSRN Electronic Paper Collection:
            http://papers.ssrn.com/paper.taf?abstract_id=298096

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Paper ID:  CESifo Working Paper Series No. 671; Uppsala
            University, Dept. of Economics Working Paper 2002:1
     Date:  February 2002

  Contact:  BERTIL HOLMLUND
    Email:  Mailto:bertil.holmlund@xxxxxxxxx
   Postal:  Uppsala University
            Department of Economics
            P.O. Box 513
            SE-75120 Uppsala,    SWEDEN
    Phone:  +46 18 471 1122
      Fax:  +46 18 471 1478
  Co-Auth:  DONALD STORRIE
    Email:  Mailto:Donald.Storrie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   Postal:  Gothenburg University (Goteborg Universitet)
            Department of Economics
            Box 640
            SE 405 30 Gothenborg,    SWEDEN

ABSTRACT:
  Sweden has experienced a substantial increase in temporary work
  over the 1990s, with most of the rise occurring during a severe
  macroeconomic recession with mass unemployment. By the early
  1990s, workers on fixed-term contracts accounted for 10 percent
  of the number of employees; by the end of the decade they
  accounted for 16 percent. The paper presents the Swedish
  institutional setting, documents basic stylised facts about
  fixed-term contracts, and discusses the causes of their
  increased prevalence. Our analysis reveals that open-ended and
  temporary employment exhibit strikingly different cyclical
  behaviour with temporary employment being more volatile. A
  recession is associated with an initial decline in temporary
  employment followed by a sharp rise from the trough to the end
  of the recession. We argue that the severe recession of the
  1990s is a major factor behind the rise in temporary work in
  Sweden. Adverse macroeconomic conditions make firms more prone
  to offer fixed-term contracts and workers more willing to accept
  them.

  Keywords: Temporary Jobs, Labor Market Dynamics, Unemployment




--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901