The newly released Misery Index, compiled by the Instituto Juan de Mariana, provides a detailed analysis of economic hardship across the European Union, focusing on unemployment and inflation as its key indicators.
Legal interventions in hiring and firing practices are often referred to as employment protection legislation that include working hours, health and safety requirements. The extent of legislative intervention and its quality significantly affects the functioning of the labour market.
The Employment Flexibility Index 2019 of the member states of the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provides a comparative quantitative analysis of labor regulation flexibility.
Production taxes in France have long been a contentious issue closely linked to employment and wage growth. France currently sets one of the highest levels of production taxes in the EU, which can be seen as an example of the government’s habitual over-taxation.
Labour market flexibility may be characterized by the market participants’ abilities to deviate from standard labour regulations and typical forms of employment. Such possibilities may not only provide positive outcomes to both employers and employees, but they may also benefit the whole economy.
Economic migrants rarely displace local labour force. Immigrants are more likely to complement existing labour force creating opportunities for growth and bringing needed skills. Foreign workers reduce imbalances in local economies by filling in the demand for workers that a local economy cannot provide or by taking up jobs that local workers do want to pursue.
It is claimed that robots, algorithms and artificial intelligence are going to destroy jobs on an unprecedented scale. These developments, unlike past bouts of technical change, threaten rapidly to affect even highly-skilled work and lead to mass unemployment and/or dramatic falls in wages and living standards, while accentuating inequality.