Documents Bosch, Gerhard 89 results

"The rise to prominence of the service sector - heralded over half a century ago as the great hope for the twenty-first century - has come to fruition. In many cases, employment in the service sector now outnumbers that in manufacturing sectors, and it is accepted that in all developed countries, the service sector is the only one in which employment will grow in future. The reasons for this is the subject of much controversy and debate, the outcomes of which are not merely of academic interest but of decisive importance for economic policy and the quality of working and living conditions in future.



In order to examine these various arguments, research teams from eight European countries worked together for three years on a comparative study of the evolution of service sector employment in EU member states. They also investigated working and employment conditions in five very different service industries (banking, retailing, hospitals, IT services and care of the elderly) in a number of countries, and the results of their research are presented in this informative new collection, of interest to students academics and researchers involved in all aspects of industrial economics."

"In international comparison, Germany can be characterised as an inclusive Bismarckian welfare state with a broadly based middle class. Since the mid-1990s, however, the economic basis of middle-class prosperity and security has been crumbling. The article investigates the development of the German middle class from a labour market perspective. The explosion of the low-wage sector, as well as an increasingly unequal distribution of working time among households, is weakening the economic basis of the middle class. These developments came along with an erosion of the previously inclusive wage system, which was caused by the deregulation of the labour market and the weakening of unions' bargaining power."

"The development of the German wage-setting system since 1990 demonstrates that income inequality increases rapidly as an inclusive wage-setting system is eroded. Collective agreements and works councils are now disappearing from broad swathes of the economy and, as a result, income inequality has increased rapidly. Nevertheless, social dialogue has continued to play a central role in Germany. Particularly worthy of mention in this regard is the joint management of the financial crisis by means of innovative working time systems and the recruitment of more than 540,000 trainees in the midst of the crisis in order to prevent youth unemployment from rising. This might well be the blueprint to follow in the next crisis."

"Die Digitalisierung der Arbeit, die Heraufsetzung des Rentenalters und Brüche im Erwerbsleben erfordern zunehmend berufliche Umorientierungen im Erwerbsverlauf. Das betonen alle Studien zur „Zukunft der Arbeit“. Das deutsche jugendorientierte Bildungssystem ist auf diese Herausforderung nicht vorbereitet. In diesem Debattenbeitrag werden die unterschiedlichen Vorschläge zu einer besseren Finanzierung von Weiterbildung dargestellt und bewertet. Kurzfristig umsetzbar sind die Einführung eines Erwachsenen-BAföG's und einer stärker investiven Ausrichtung der Arbeitsmarktpolitik, zu der auch eine aktive Weiterbildungsberatung gehört."

"After WW II, the previously rather rudimentary German social model was developed into an inclusive Bismarckian welfare state that protected the vast majority of the population from life's main risks. In the past 20 years, the social security system has been reorganized at a rapid pace. The hitherto inclusive wage system has been eroded by the deregulation of product markets and the Hartz laws with negative spillover effects for all wage-related benefits of social insurance especially pensions. Therefore the German welfare system has become more exclusive. At the same time, the reform of the traditional German family model has begun with the development of child care and all-day schools and the introduction of the parental allowance. In addition a mandatory long-term care insurance was introduced and the modernisation of dual system of vocational training helped to reduce youth unemployment."