Labour market performances in the EU27: a job quality perspective

Job quality has become an economic policy issue at the international level, through the Lisbon Strategy of the European Union, and the decent work agenda of the International Labour Organisation. However, the concept of job quality involves important debates that start with its definition, since it includes many aspects, like decent wages and employment security, working conditions and work intensity, training opportunities, work and family life reconciliation... Besides, two main questions derive from a job quality perspective on the labour market: is there a trade-off between quantitative and qualitative performances of the labour market? And what institutions and policies are likely to enhance job quality?In this communication we focus on these questions using mostly European evidence, but also some first results for OECD countries, that are based on specific data bases and data analysis techniques. Two complementary perspectives are envisaged. First, a broad comparative perspective including the 27 EU member states is proposed for 2005-2006. Second, the dynamics of employment quality over the last ten years is studied for a more limited sample of 18 countries. The results suggest first that the heterogeneity in qualitative performances of the labour markets can be related to different institutional models, second that employment rate performances are positively correlated with quality indicators. In section 3, we try to enlarge our geographical focus and to analyse the situation of OECD countries with regard to job quality indicators. The results, although they remain preliminary, confirm the interest of using job quality indicators to study the diversity of labour market characteristics.