Who expects to work?

Citation

(1999), "Who expects to work?", Work Study, Vol. 48 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.1999.07948cab.010

Who expects to work?

Who expects to work?

The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions is working on a major survey designed to assess the preferences over the next five years of those who work, and of those who wish to work, taking into account their personal situation, their own economic situation and the general economic and labour market situation. Nearly 30,000 people aged 16 to 64 from all 15 Member States of the EU and Norway were interviewed about their present employment status, their working conditions and their preferences, for the survey. The first results, according to Harald Bielenski of Intratest Burke, main contractor of the research, there is a gap between the personal expectations of the respondents and the probable developments in the labour market. The initial findings indicate that people expect that employment rates will increase over the next five years. They assume that governments and employers will succeed in providing job opportunities for more people either by creating new jobs or by sharing the present amount of work among more persons. According to current indications in the labour market these expectations will not be met without changes in policy. This has important implications for labour market policy. If their actions are to be in harmony with the expectations of those to whom policy applies, policy makers should not only seek to create new full-time jobs but also to look at other ways of distributing the available work.