All industrialized countries have employment protection legislation (EPL) for permanent workers and restrictions on the use of temporary employment (RTE). The (ambiguous) effects of these on the levels of employment and unemployment have been extensively studied, but nothing is known empirically...

This paper presents the first empirical evidence on the effect of the threat of unionisation on the use of a predominantly non-union type of employment, i.e. temporary employment. The identification strategy exploits an exogenous variation in union threat induced in the UK by new legislation...

This paper analyses the impact of the COVID-19 crisis across socio-economic groups in Switzerland and the role played by its short-time work scheme during the first year of the crisis until the end of 2020. To this end, it compares changes in hours worked for different socio-groups in...

This paper studies changes in computer use and job quality in the EU-15 between 1995 and 2015. We document that while the proportion of workers using computers has increased from 40% to more than 60% over twenty years, there remain significant differences between countries even within the same...

Job creation has lowered unemployment, but the Belgian labour market still faces many challenges. Employment rates remain low, reflecting barriers to finding a job such as low levels of skills and weak work incentives. In addition, the changing nature of work will require faster adaptation of...

Labour markets across the OECD have polarised in recent decades, as the share of middle skill occupations has declined relative to that of both high- and low skill occupations. This paper shows that, contrary to what is often assumed in the public debate, job polarisation has not resulted in a...

La création d’emplois a contribué à faire reculer le chômage, mais le marché du travail belge demeure confronté à de nombreux défis. Les taux d’emploi restent bas en raison d’obstacles tels que le faible niveau des compétences et le manque d’incitations au travail. En outre, les...