Labour Market
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Trine Lise Sundnes: Nordic workers’ voice at the ILO
(Jan 31, 2012) The most important labour-regulating conventions were first introduced in Europe before being exported to countries elsewhere. Yet these same rights are now under threat from European countries looking for more ways to cut costs in the face of the economic crisis, says Trine Lise Sundnes, who represents Nordic workers on the ILO’s governing body.
ILO warns of global employment crisis
(Jan 25, 2012) The economic crisis which began in 2008 has turned into a global employment crisis. 27 million people have become unemployed since the start of the downturn. 400 million jobs must be created in the next decade in order to keep up with an increasing global population.
Nordic ministers want a more open working life
(Dec 12, 2011) How do you open up the labour market for more people with disabilities? It is a hot topic. Despite crisis and unemployment taking hold, labour ministers keep their strategic focus on mobilising more people to join working life. They highlight the long-term need for labour and that all have the right to be fully part of working and social life. The challenge is to get working life partners to back their initiatives.
Disability a hindrance also to the labour market
(Dec 12, 2011) Despite all ambitious attempts at getting people with disabilities into the Finnish labour market the sad truth is that they are being discriminated against. Now the government is making new efforts to give them a better chance.
What do border obstacles cost the Nordic region?
(Dec 12, 2011) Is it possible to calculate how much the Nordic countries are loosing because of the many remaining border obstacles affecting the labour market? According to Copenhagen Economics no border obstacles would mean 3,000 to 6,000 more cross-border commuters. If all of them came out of unemployment it would save 4.2bn Danish kroner (€56m).
People with disabilities held back by attitudes in working life
(Dec 12, 2011) How do you open up the labour market for people with disabilities? While medical and technological advances keep breaking down barriers, attitudes are lagging behind. ”The most important thing is to see the abilities, not the disability, what people can do, not what they cannot do,” said Finland’s Minster of Labour when he met his Nordic colleagues and the social partners recently to discuss what can be done. But good attitudes are not enough. Nordic governments are bringing in new measures to compensate businesses for extra costs and the needed workplace adaptation. Now they want to see commitment from employers. The Nordic Labour Journal has met ministers and employers and not least people with disabilities who talk about what is needed to succeed.
Getting closer to members could secure union survival
(Nov 13, 2011) Nordic trade unions must get closer to their members and provide a better service at a lower price. If not the Nordic labour market model will die, warn labour market experts.
Collective bargaining under pressure as union membership plummets
(Nov 11, 2011) Danes - especially young men - abandon trade unions with record speed new figures show. Experts believe it can undermine the social partners’ self regulation - the so-called flexicurity model.
Transport facilities crucial to mining
(Oct 12, 2011) Nordic politicians are waking up to the possibilities for the mining industry. On 12 October foreign ministers in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council met in the LKAB mine in Kiruna. Norway’s Jonas Gahr Støre (right below) and Sweden’s Carl Bildt arrived together on the ore train from Narvik.
Greenland’s red hot labour market
(Oct 12, 2011) Flemming Enequist stands at the stern of a Targa 37 with 600 horsepowers ploughing him through the Godthåp fjord on his way to London Mining’s base camp 150 kilometres north-east of Greenland’s capital Nuuk. He works for the local autority and his job is to tempt young Greenlanders to find work in the mining industry.
Mining equipment: a Nordic niche
(Oct 12, 2011) Mining equipment manufacturers have been surfing on a wave of high metal prices. With increasing needs for metals in countries like China, India and Brazil, sales and employment figures keep rising.
New Norwegian drive to find jobs for people with impaired work abilities
(Oct 12, 2011) Organisations for people with disabilities along with the social partners didn’t hold back their praise when Norway’s Minister for Labour Hanne Bjurstrøm and Minister for Children, Equality and Social Inclusion Audun Lysbakken presented their ‘Job strategy for people with impaired work ability‘ during the presentation of Norway’s 2012 budget on 6 October.
SCB has surveyed the unemployed for 50 years
(Oct 12, 2011) There are 4.5 million people in employment in Sweden - one million more than 50 years ago. That is one conclusion to be drawn from Statistics Sweden’s (SCB) monthly labour market figures delivered over the past 50 years. SCB’s labour surveys, known as AKU, have helped politicians, economists, journalists and other decision makers to get to know the state, development and dynamics of Sweden’s labour market.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt: Danes must work more
(Oct 06, 2011) More people must work more, productivity must increase and salaries will freeze. These are central elements to Denmark’s new centre-left government’s labour market policy, which has been relatively well received by both employers’ and workers’ organisations.
An election coloured by crisis
(Sep 07, 2011) Which politicians can best guide Denmark through the current economic crisis, where more and more Danes fear going bust or end up unemploymed? That is the deciding question in the Danish elections this month.
Finland hunts for a new salary model
(Sep 07, 2011) Finland’s social partners are desperately looking for a new negotiation model. Or rather: the trade unions are trying their hardest to convince employers that a 40 year old labour market institution is still relevant.
Editorial: A common Nordic labour market but not common public goods
(Jun 17, 2011) What would happen in the Øresund region if 20 to 30,000 commuters across the bridge between Sweden and Denmark decided it was time to take action? Or if Nordic citizens who move or commute across the borders stopped doing it because of problems with tax authorities and unfair social benefit rules? Nordic Labour Journal has made a top 10 list over border obstacles which make it difficult for people to use their freedom to move or commute to where they can find jobs. New efforts are being made between the Nordic countries to remove border obstacles, and they are the focus of this edition of NLJ.
Ole Norrback: Border obstacles are all about political will
(Jun 17, 2011) While Nordic politicians talk about the challenges of globalisation and how to turn the Nordic region into a dynamic region of growth, new border obstacles emerge to complicate lives of citizens and businesses alike.
The ten most serious border obstacles
(Jun 17, 2011) Border obstacles are not only things that make it difficult for Nordic citizens to settle down and work in a different Nordic country from their own. They are also problems which arise when you move back home, when you fall ill or when you need to draw your pension. NLJ and the Freedom of Movement Forum have drawn up a list of the ten most important border obstacles for working life.
Nordic working group to suggest how to remove border obstacles
(Jun 17, 2011) A Nordic working group has been commissioned to present solutions for how to remove 39 border obstacles identified as being to the detriment of working life and social insurance systems in the Nordic countries. The group's chairperson is Essi Rentola. She estimates between a third and half of all the obstacles need to be solved on an EU level because they affect the entire Union and not only the Nordic countries.
