We analyse insecurity-based dividing lines and their social configurations in the German, Belgian and Italian labour markets in 2015, using latent class analysis applied to EU Labour Force Survey data. In contrast to the dual vision of ‘insider-outsider’ approaches, our findings illustrate the existence of five distinctive labour market groups or segments across countries with similar social configurations. We explain this through the social embeddedness of national regulatory systems which generate different degrees of inclusiveness for different groups of workers. This adds to ongoing debates on connecting micro- and macro-levels of analysis, as labour market segmentation as a macro-phenomenon is studied based on its micro-foundations (terms and conditions of employment relationships). We use the interlinkages between national regulatory systems and social categories to explain the findings.
BakkZTekleFBVermuntJK (2013) Estimating the association between latent class membership and external variables using bias-adjusted three-step approaches. Sociological Methodology43(1): 272–311.
2.
BendlRHanappi-EggerEHofmannR (2012) Diversität und Diversitätsmanagement. Vienna: facultas.
3.
BeynonHGrimshawDRuberyJWardK (2002) Managing Employment Change: The New Realities of Work. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4.
BiegertT (2014) On the outside looking in? Transitions out of non-employment in the United Kingdom and Germany. Journal of European Social Policy24(1): 3–18.
5.
BlossfeldHPMayerKU (1988) Labor market segmentation in the Federal Republic of Germany: An empirical study of segmentation theories from a life course perspective. European Sociological Review4(2): 123–140.
6.
BrandlBLehrA (2018) A problem of embeddedness: A micro-theoretical model of trade union action and interaction in Europe. Employee Relations40(3): 500–514.
DavidssonJNaczykM (2009) The ins and outs of dualisation: A literature review. Working Papers on the Reconciliation of Work and Welfare in Europe, REC-WP 02/2009. Edinburgh: RECWOWE Publication, Dissemination and Dialogue Centre.
9.
DoerflingerN (2016). Different worlds of work? A study on labour market regulatory institutions and contingent work in Belgium and Germany. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Leuven, Leuven.
10.
DoeringerPPioreM (1971) Internal Labor Markets and Manpower Analysis. Lexington, KY: D. C. Heath and Company.
11.
EichhorstWMarxPWehnerC (2016) Labor market reforms in Europe: Towards more flexicure labour markets? IZA Discussion Paper no. 9863. Bonn: IZA.
12.
EmmeneggerPHäusermannSPalierBSeeleib-KaiserM (2012) The Age of Dualization: The Changing Face of Inequality in Deindustrializing Societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
FaganCO’ReillyJ (1998) Conceptualising part-time work: The value of an integrated comparative perspective. In: O’ReillyJFaganC (eds) Part-Time Prospects: An International Comparison of Part-Time Work in Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim. London: Routledge, pp. 1–32.
15.
Fernández-MaciasE (2012) Job polarization in Europe? Changes in the employment structure and job quality, 1995–2007. Work and Occupations39(2): 157–182.
16.
GallieDFelsteadAGreenFInancH (2017) The hidden face of job insecurity. Work, Employment and Society31(1): 36–53.
17.
GranovetterM (1992) Institutions as social constructions: A framework for analysis. Acta Sociologica35(1): 3–11.
18.
GrimshawDCartwrightJKeizerARuberyJ (2018) Market exposure and the labour process: The contradictory dynamics in managing subcontracted services work. Work, Employment and Society33(1): 76–95.
19.
HagenaarsJAMcCutcheonA (2002) Applied Latent Class Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
20.
HåkanssonKPulignanoVIsidorssonTDoerflingerN (2017) Explaining job insecurity for temporary agency workers: A comparison between Sweden and Belgium. Economic and Industrial Democracy. Epub ahead of print 6 June. DOI:10.1177/0143831X17707824.
21.
HallPSoskiceD (eds) (2001) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
22.
HäusermannSSchwanderH (2013) Who is in and who is out? Proposing a risk-based operationalisation of insiders and outsiders. Journal of European Social Policy23(3): 248–269.
23.
JepsenMO’DorchaiSPlasmanRRycxF (2005) The wage penalty induced by part-time work: The case of Belgium. Brussels Economic Review48(1–2): 73–94.
24.
KreckelR (1980) Unequal opportunity structure and labour market segmentation. Sociology14(4): 525–550.
25.
LautschBA (2002) Uncovering and explaining variance in the features and outcomes of contingent work. ILR Review56(1): 23–43. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/001979390205600102
26.
LewchukW (2017) Precarious jobs: Where are they, and how do they affect well-being?Economic and Labour Relations Review28(3): 402–419.
27.
LockeRThelenK (1995) Apples and oranges revisited: Contextualized comparisons and the study of comparative labor politics. Politics & Society23(3): 337–367.
28.
LukacMDoerflingerNPulignanoP (2019) Developing a cross-national comparative framework for studying labour market segmentation: Measurement equivalence with latent class analysis. Social Indicators Research145(1): 233–255.
29.
McBrideAHebsonGHolgateJ (2015) Intersectionality: Are we taking enough notice in the field of work and employment relations. Work, Employment and Society29(2): 331–341.
30.
McCutcheonA (1987) Latent Class Analysis. London: SAGE.
31.
McCutcheonA (2002) Basic concepts and procedures in single- and multi-group latent class analysis. In: HagenaarsJMcCutcheonA (eds) Applied Latent Class Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 56–88.
OstermanP (1994) How common is workplace transformation and who adopts it?ILR Review47(2): 173–188.
34.
PalierBThelenK (2010) Institutionalizing dualism: Complementarities and change in France and Germany. Politics & Society38(1): 119–148.
35.
PassarettaGWolbersM (2019) Temporary employment at labour market entry in Europe: Labour market dualism, transitions to secure employment and upward mobility. Economic and Industrial Democracy33(1): 76–95.
36.
PinelliDTorreRPaceLCassioLArpaiaA (2017) The recent reform of the labour market in Italy: A review. European Economy Discussion Paper no. 72. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.
37.
PulignanoVDoerflingerN (2013) A head with two tales: Trade unions’ influence on temporary agency work in Belgian and German workplaces. International Journal of Human Resource Management24(22): 4149–4165.
38.
PulignanoVDoerflingerN (2018a) Expanding social actor-based explanations in labour market dualisation research: A combined macro-micro and micro-macro approach. Employee Relations40(1): 75–88.
39.
PulignanoVDoerflingerN (2018b) Labour markets, solidarity and precarious work: Comparing local unions’ responses to management flexibility strategies in the German and Belgian metalworking and chemical industries. In: DoellgastVLillieNPulignanoP (eds) Reconstructing Solidarity: Labour Unions, Precarious Work, and the Politics of Institutional Change in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 104–123.
40.
RodgersG (1989) Precarious work in Western Europe: The state of the debate. In: RodgersGRodgersJ (eds) Precarious Jobs in Labour Market Regulation. Geneva: ILO, pp. 1–16.
41.
RuberyJ (1978) Structured labour markets, worker organisation and low pay. Cambridge Journal of Economics2(1): 17–36.
42.
RuberyJ (2007) Developing segmentation theory: A thirty years perspective. Economies et Societés41(6): 941–964.
43.
RuberyJFaganC (1995) Comparative industrial relations research: Towards reversing the gender bias. British Journal of Industrial Relations33(2): 209–236.
44.
RuberyJPiasnaA (2016) Labour market segmentation and the EU reform agenda: Developing alternatives to the mainstream. ETUI Working Paper no. 2016.10. Brussels: European Trade Union Institute.
45.
RuberyJKeizerAGrimshawD (2016) Flexibility bites back: The multiple and hidden costs of flexible employment policies. Human Resource Management Journal26(3): 235–251.
46.
RuedaD (2014) Dualization, crisis and the welfare state. Socio-Economic Review12(2): 381–407.
47.
RussoGHassinkW (2005) The part-time wage penalty: A career perspective. IZA Discussion Paper no. 1468. Bonn: IZA.
48.
SándorE (2011) Part-Time Work in Europe. Dublin: Eurofound.
49.
SouthwoodKE (1974) Goodman and Kruskal’s Tau-b as correlation ratio: Some implications. Sociological Methods & Research3(1): 82–110.
50.
StoneKArthursH (eds) (2013) Rethinking Workplace Regulation: Beyond the Standard Contract of Employment. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
51.
StuartMFaganCRuberyJ (1998) Where and why is part-time work growing in Europe? In: O’ReillyJFaganC (eds) Part-Time Prospects: An International Comparison of Part-Time Work in Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim. London: Routledge, pp. 35–56.
52.
ThelenK (2014) Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
53.
TillyC (1998) Durable Inequality. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
VermuntJ (2010) Latent class modeling with covariates: Two improved three-step approaches. Political Analysis18(4): 450–469.
56.
WeilD (2014) The Fissured Workplace: Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What Can Be Done to Improve It. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
57.
YoonYChungH (2016) New forms of dualization? Labour market segmentation patterns in the UK from the late 1990s until the post crisis in the late 2000s. Social Indicators Research128(2): 609–631.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
