Labour market changes and job insecurity: a challenge for social welfare and health promotion

Signs of rapid political, social and economic change abounded in the Europe of the 1990s. Today Europe and indeed the world again face changes in the worlds of finance and employment that are often bewildering and difficult to track, and even more difficult to analyse for their impact on people's lives and particularly their health.

This book is the result of a symposium held in 1996, that has unsettling relevance again today. The Finnish National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe invited some 30 international scholars to a symposium to focus in depth on one aspect of change in Europe: the job insecurity and unemployment that arise from changes in the world of work. At the symposium, experts in economics, epidemiology, health promotion, social policy, medicine and the behavioural and social sciences, labour market analysts and public health specialists shared information and perspectives on the health impact of employment insecurity.

Research warns of the health hazards associated with major social disruptions and the consequences of ignoring them. This book explores the kind of labour market policies that policy-makers need to develop to address the effects of job insecurity on health and welfare.