Hiring, employment, and health in Scandinavia: the Danish ‘flexicurity’ model in comparative perspective

Abstract:

Previous research has shown that people with health problems often experience disadvantages on the labour market. Can weak employment protection increase employment prospects for people with ill health? In order to investigate this question, the longitudinal part of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data material is utilised (2008–2011) and generalised least squares regressions are estimated. The research context is set to Scandinavia.

Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are similar in many respects, but deviate on one important point: the employment protection legislation is considerably weaker in the Danish ‘flexicurity’ model. The lenient firing regulations could make employers more prone to take the ‘risk’ associated with hiring someone with a health problem, since the costs related to firing him/her are low. The results reveal that people with ill health have somewhat better hiring likelihood in Denmark than in Norway and Sweden. This pattern is, however, only evident among higher educated individuals. Furthermore, descriptive evidence indicates that the ‘flexicurity’ model seems to come at a cost for people with health problems: The employment rates are not high overall, and temporary work contracts are much more widespread in Denmark. Consequently, labour market attachment for people with ill health remains rather ‘loose’ in the Danish ‘flexicurity’ model.