Effects of Labour Market Policy Programmes

As described in chapter 3.2., governments in all countdes have developed programmes to create incentives for full-time employed or unemployed persans to accept part-time jobs. The introduction of youth training schemes as part-time employment relations, the de facto part-time employment in publicly financed job creation programmes and the programmes to employ people, entering the public service, on a part-time basis has strengthened the increase of part-time employment.

It is worthwhile to notice that most of these government programmes include part-time work in the "protected" segment of part-time work with more than 15 hours a week or at earnings above the thresholds. Depending on the seize of the different national programmes it is possible to identify

the share of part-time employment due to these programmes.

Belgium is a country where labour market programmes influences the growth of part-time work more than in other countries. For 1987 the Belgian Government reports that on average 151.849 part-time workers, 80% of them are warnen, are "unemployed persans having part-time employment and receive benefits on top of the wage paid by the employer".

This figure counts for nearly 45% of all part-time employees in the same year (total part-time employment = 340.000) (cf. Burastat 1989).

Beginning in 1983, when the regulation was changed, there has been a significant increase in the nurober of unemployed in part-time work. The proportion of warnen was constantly around 80%.

Other programmes, such as programmes aiming to combine work and training for young people, to provide work experience for young people, or to allow voluntary career breaks or partial retirement add up in 1987 to another 35.000 persans (annual average 1987), Le. 10% of all part-time employees. Both figures tagether show that more than 50% of all part-time employment in Belgium can be attributed to government labour market policies or is- in other words- subsidised part-time employment of otherwise unemployed or formerly full-time employed persons.

The increase of part-time employment in Belgium since 1983 is- according to the opinion of national experts - to a large proportion due to the financial incentive for the unemployed to accept part-time employment.

Having in mind that it was Belgium where a large nurober of part-time employees said that they work "involuntarily" in part-time employment (1988:48,3% of men and 33,6% of warnen working part-time), this high rate of involuntariness may be explained by the fact that there is a certain pressure on the unemployed to accept part-time work.

It is hard to establish how many part-time jobs would have been affered by employers or accepted by unemployed without the subsidies paid. The

"autonomous" growth of part-time work can not be examined. Bearing in mind that labour law and social security regulations in Belgium treat

part-time and full-part-time workers equally so that the ^finan~ial incentives are small the government programmes seem to have had a massive influence on the growth of part-time employment.

In none of the other countries can a similar influence of labour market programmes on the increase of part-time employment be seen. We do not have figures on part-time labour market programmes in Germany and Denmark, because there are no specifically part-time based programmes within the labour market policy. In some programmes participants work on a part-time contract (as in job creation programmes in Germany, or in training programmes in Denmark) but the data are not divided into full-time/part-time shares.

In France the job creation programme TUC (Travau d'utilite collective) is the largest part-time labour market measure. It is targeted towards unemployed persons aged 16 to 25 years old, and it provides a 3 - 12 month part-time working and training period on apart-time employment basis. In 1985 320 000 and in 1988 335 000 young people passed through this programme, according to figures presented by OECD. 0,2% of the labour force starts working in this programme per year ( cf. OECD 1990a). OECD estimates that the annual averagestock is 170 000 persons. Referred to the number of young persons under 25 years old working part-time (1987:493 000), employment in the TUC represents at least one third of young part-time employees. Other programmes, including partial retirement and part-time training programmes (not included in the TUC) are even less important because they have only a small nurober of participartts.

The situation in the Netherlands is similar: the largest labour market programme based on part-time employment, is the "growth job scheme for young people", which offers part-time employment to young people under 25 years. The working time is 20 to 32 hours a week; the young people receive minimum youth wages for the hours worked. 1987 3 100 persans were employed ( annual average ), i.e. less than 1% of the part-time employees in the same age group. Other programmes like youth training programmes, training programmes for the unemployed offer a

combination of part-time employment and part-time tra!ning; there are no exact figures available on part-time shares.

In the United Kingdom the job creation programme which existed from 1982-1988 (Community Programme) was the largest labour market programme on a de facto part-time basis. The programme affered jobs up to a years duration, mainly with local authorities and voluntary organisations. The sponsors of the programme were re-imbursed by the labour market authorities. More than 80% of the participants are timers. At the end of 1987 221 000 persans participated, or 4% of all part-time employees. An even smaller number of participants had been in the Jobshare Programme which is designed to encourage employers to split existing full-time jobs into two part-time jobs or to combine regular over-time hours into apart-over-time job or to create two new part-over-time jobs. At the end of 1987 exactly 870 participants were registered in this programme (the precursor programme, Job Splitting Scheme, had at its peak point in 1984 1 023 participants).

To draw a conclusion: with the exception of Belgium in none of the countdes do labour market policy programmes account to a substantial degree for the growth of part-time employment. Their direct influence on the development of part-time employment seems in general negligible, or limited to young persans entering the labour market (as in France). Due to programme n!quirements, employers employing part-time workers may not fulfil the criteria, or the requirements may discourage them from participating in the schemes. The structure of incentives and requirements may be not adequate för the employers' situation.

There may be indirect impacts influencing the behaviour of employers and employees. Positive attitudes of governments towards part-time employment expressed in labour market programmes, may influence public opinion and attitudes towards this kind of employment relationship.

As a result of the promotion of part-time employment by labour market programmes employers may be stimulated to organise work patterns on a part-time basis. Employees, the unemployed or persans outside the labour

market may be stimulated to search for, or to accept a ^p~rt-time job.