"The balance between flexibility and security on the labour market has since 2007 become a priority on the European Union's agenda. The efforts of Member States are assessed by means of performance indicators. This article focuses on the dynamic employment security indicator, in an attempt to highlight what the EU's Employment Committee means by the notion of ‘making people's pathways more secure'. With both empirical and theoretical perspectives in mind, we seek to reveal the postulates behind the decisions of those who designed this indicator. Drawing on an epistemological analysis founded on Amartya Sen's capability approach, and in particular on his key idea of the ‘informational basis of judgement', this article identifies the normative thread of this indicator, which gives flexibility precedence over real freedom for workers, and employability precedence over capability. Our case studies of Sweden and the United Kingdom demonstrate the key effects of institutional systems, shed light on practices whereby labour market policies can be manipulated to optimize the performance of the dynamic employment security indicator, and cast doubt on the relevance of institutionalized benchmarking using this indicator. "

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