Thursday, May 7, 2009

Those Wacky Europeans!

by the Sandwichman

EU recommends shorter working hours to prevent layoffs


Don't they know it's a lump-of-labor fallacy to think that you can fight unemployment by cutting hours? Why, it says right here in this introductory textbook...
Actions by Member States and social partners must aim at maintaining as many people as possible in jobs. To this end, a temporary adjustment of working hours can be an effective policy option for firms of all sizes, with the support of public funding including the European Social Fund (ESF); it can be an opportunity for re-training to facilitate internal job transfers or transitions to other companies and/or sectors in line with flexicurity.

1 comment:

Pat Donnelly said...

Isn't this another form of inflation? The net effect of this with low interest rates, might be enough to approximate a negative rate, at least in sectors of the economy.
Even if wages are reduced pro rata, some social welfare is paid as well. An extreme example of socialization.