Explain how Germany has sought to have both some security and Essay

Explain how Germany has sought to have both some security and flexibility in its labour markets. Have these approaches been su - Essay Example Social security represents the employment security and social security. The purpose of this paper is to understand the concept of â€Å"flexicurity†. This concept relates to a positive relationship between the two aspects of labour market security and flexibility (Sauert, 2009). However, there are opposing views regarding the concept of flexicurity as well. According to authors like, Stanford and Vosco, increasing flexibility in labour markets is synonymous to decreasing flexibility (Rodgers, 2012). The aim of this paper is to study the context of labour market security and flexibility in Germany and the impact of it on the workforce, especially young workers. This paper also analyses the scenario of wage stagnation and mini jobs in Germany, owing to the labour market conditions. Flexibility and Security of Labour markets: Germany One of the key challenges of the member countries in the European Union is to strike the perfect balance between the flexibility and security of the labour market. The main action of policy makers in this regard has been to pass on the responsibility to the social partners. The underlying assumption in this case is that a well-balanced social dialogue leads to a well-balanced social market (Wilthagen, n.d.). ... In particular regard to Germany, the academic literature is more of a divided nature. One section of the academic fraternity believes that the labour flexibility in the German markets must increase as a precursor to reduce the high level of unemployment in the country. However, the emphasis of the government has been more on increasing the income and job security (Wilthagen, Tros and Lieshout, 2003). Regarding the flexibility status, Germany maintains a vision of internal numerical flexibility. Flexibility of working hours and reduction of overtime continues to be one of the most important policy considerations for the future. Over the recent years, the German Labour market has undergone a great degree of transformation, after suffering great levels of unemployment, both structural and long-term, for decades. The level of difficulty was higher for the unemployed workers as they found it difficult to enter the labour market. Since 2000, the introduction of reforms in the labour market s had widely changed the employment structure in the German labour market. Germany had mainly structured its policy around flexicurity, which aimed at less generous benefit system and lower level of protection against dismissal. The flexicurity model employed by Germany mainly relied on developing a well-built social security system, which structured the labour market policies in a way that would employ the people without jobs. The successful reform package of Germany can be traced to the introduction of reforms by Hartz in between 2002-2005 (Federal Republic of Germany, 2004) and Agenda 2010. The key feature has been to employ the job seekers and enhance the flexibility of labour markets. The main recommendations of the Hartz commission have been