Re: [tlug] [OT] A Question About Degrees

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Fredric Fredricson writes:
 > On 07/16/2010 07:08 AM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
 > > In the U.S. and to some extent in Japan, there are options such as
 > > contract work.  Much less job security, less to no fringe benefits,
 > > but the direct compensation is comparable (and sometimes substantially
 > > higher), and you get experience relevant to permanent positions in
 > > your field.
 > Why do you assume that there are no contract workers in Europe?

I don't assume that there are *none*.  After all, it is a market
economy, and demand will seek out supply.

Just that my understanding (from people who should know, ie, labor
economists at the U. of Madrid and U. of Barcelona, INSEAD and U. of
Toulouse, Cambridge U.) is that there is much less flexibility in
regard to the fixed costs of hiring in Europe than there is in the
U.S. and Japan.  My understanding is that if you hire someone on the
books, you have to pay their social insurance contributions etc.,
there are constraints on hours of work, vacations, etc, that make
contract workers in general hardly less expensive than regular workers
of comparable job description and qualification.

IOW, it's generally not a way where you can make yourself more
attractive to potential employers by making yourself cheaper and
giving them more flexibility, unless you accept a much bigger cut in
your cash flow than would be the case in the U.S., or even Japan.
Given the relatively generous unemployment benefits, unemployment ends
up looking pretty good!

This inflexibility is certainly what politicians and the mass media
find attractive about proposals that they claim are inspired by
European laws and regulations, anyway, because it's precisely the
problems of maintaining social insurance contribution rates and
providing for income security in case of abrupt termination of
employment that have raised such a hooraw about contract workers here
recently.