Lucia Mytna Kurekova

Welfare Systems as Emigration Factor: Evidence from the New Accession States

This article analyzes the role of welfare systems in shaping migration patterns in central and eastern Europe. It argues that states have played a crucial role in affecting migration by creating and widening opportunities for potential and actual migrants through welfare system policies. This explains why CEE countries where social spending figures have been lower, unemployment benefit schemes less extensive and where labour market mismatches remained unaddressed, experienced greater out-migration. The article contributes to our understanding of how sending countries’ institutional factors affect out-migration by investigating the role of sending states’ institutions.

Linking Labour Regimes and Technological Innovation in Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of Automotive and Software Industries

This report studies the link between labour regimes and technological innovation in Central and Eastern Europe, analysing in some detail two key sectors that have gained in importance in the economies of the region: the automotive and software industries. Defining success as a move up-market in terms of production and/or gaining a dominant and stable share in the world markets, both sectors have been successful regionally and, in certain aspects, also globally. Yet, the character and levels of innovation and RD b) openness to foreign labour as a source of knowledge in some cases and in others of numerical flexibility; and c) the existence and importance of clustering as a source of knowledge-sharing and knowledge-generation. Employment and labour-market flexibility and its links to legal and institutional frameworks are cross-cutting issues that come back in the three overarching themes. Flexibility takes different forms in the two sectors. While it might not be directly related to the innovation process as such, it has contributed to the increased competitiveness of the two sectors and supported a shift up-market in sophistication. Our general finding is that for both types of innovation – ‘imported’, which prevailed in automotive sector and ‘indigenous’ that was shown to exist fairly widely in the software industry – the availability of human capital, its structure and skill-sets have been important in order for the higher-end activities to be localised or nurtured in Central and Eastern Europe. However, the differences in the generation and implementation of innovation and in the nature of the production processes are reflected in significant differences in labour regimes.

Demand for Low- and Medium-Skilled Workers Across Europe: Between Formal Qualifications and Non-Cognitive Skills

This paper analyses job advertisements posted on the public EU portal EURES to identify the specific skills and characteristics that are demanded in the European labour market in selected low- and medium-skilled occupations and in different sectors. This research is innovative in exploring online job advertisement data from the EURES website and quantifying different skills, personal attributes and characteristics requested by employers in three countries: the Czech Republic, Denmark and Ireland. While we find that the service sector demands non-cognitive skills more than other types of occupations, the skill-demanded mix is very diverse across the countries analysed, implying that there is no universal demand and that domestic institutions and structures affect how demand is formulated. We point to potential limits of ‘European occupational labour markets’ as we find that employers’ preferences across the three countries seem rather distinct for similar types of jobs. Our work shows that online portals can become a useful source for gathering information about the content and specificities of demand at the micro-level.

Qualifications or Soft Skills? Studying Job Advertisements for Demand for Low-Skilled Staff in Slovakia

This paper analyses job advertisements to identify the specific skills and characteristics that are demanded in the Slovak labour market in selected low- and medium-skilled occupations in different sectors. It is innovative in exploring online job advertisement data and in quantifying the different skills, personal attributes and characteristics requested by employers. The authors find that Slovak employers are fairly demanding in the low- and medium-level-skilled sectors in terms of skill sets, skill intensity and formal educational levels; an ‘ideal’ low- to medium-skilled job-seeker in Slovakia needs to demonstrate a considerable set of skills and qualities. From the skills analysed, non-cognitive skills and specific cognitive skills were demanded more than general cognitive skills or appearance. Experience was the single most requested characteristic. The study shows that online portals that collect information about demand can be a very useful source of data about the content and specificities of demand at the micro-level. Empirical analyses of this type could thus be a valuable source of information for education, training policies and labour market policies.

Success against All Odds?: Determinants of Sectoral Rise and Decline in Central Europe

This article investigates the development over time of the automotive and textile industries post-1989 in four Central European countries in order to identify the key reasons behind sectoral growth or decline. The analysis demonstrates a divergent pattern of sectoral development, one that is in contrast to the perceived initial endowments of the countries and the structural positions of the sectors at the outset of the transition. Comparing the two sectors and individual success stories within them against a broader background of sectoral success and failure allows us to understand and isolate factors that lie behind the high status of the automotive sector by not only regional but also international standards. The article identifies three crucial factors that can be attributed to these outcomes: presence of foreign capital in the sector, active government support, and cooperative strategies among the firms in the sector and among the firms and other institutions in the countries.

Explaining differences in labour mobility in Czech Republic and Slovakia

This article investigates the link between reform processes and migration dynamics in two central and east European economies: Czech Republic; and Slovakia. Unbundling development and socio-economic change along structural and institutional lines, the article argues that the timing, type and location of entry of the foreign direct investment which has served as the key driver of economic restructuring, in conjunction with adjustments to welfare states, enhances our understanding of why labour has migrated with very different rates from and to the Czech Republic compared with from and to Slovakia.

Implementation of Activation Works in Slovakia. Evaluation and Recommendations for Policy Change: Final Report

This report evaluates implementation of Activation Works – a key mainstream labor market policy measure implemented in Slovakia. The main focus is on its specific effects on Roma facing social exclusion. The key message is that Activation Works are strongly embedded in and impact local socio-economies. They increase the income of participants and provide labor services to municipal governments at no direct cost but also have a number of other effects. The measure is not very effective at improving the chances of participants to gain sustainable employment. There are wider effects – benefits and costs – to both participants and other stakeholders. These should be taken into account in analyses and decisions on Activation Works. Importantly, Activation Works fulfill a social policy function, which goes beyond employment creation per se. They serve as an important social policy instrument for people in poverty, with low education and other characteristics of exclusion. Roma are generally highly overrepresented in this group.

Labour Relations and Modes of Employment

An important component of the NEUJOBS project is its interaction with the policy community. The project is pursuing several avenues to ensure its results are properly “translated” and communicated to such audiences. One of them are policy briefs. This Policy Brief contains policy implications on labour relations and modes of employment (Work Package 6), a collaborative EU-funded research project. NEUJOBS Working Documents are intended to give an indication of work being conducted within the NEUJOBS research project and to stimulate reactions from other experts in the field. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent any institution with which he is affiliated. See the back page for more information about the NEUJOBS project.