Presentation by Donald Storrie (Representative of Eurofound) on the occasion of the EESC LMO conference on "Typical and atypical work contracts - advantages and disadvantages from the labour market perspective" in Warsaw, Poland, on 8/9 April 2013.

1. "Recent developments in atypical work in
Europe with focus on temporary contracts"
8-9 April 2013 in Warsaw
Donald Storrie,
Head of the Employment and Change Unit
Eurofound

2. Various definitions of non-standard or
atypical work
Most generally as NOT full time dependent employment with
a contract of indefinite duration
ILO World of Work Report (and Eurofound)
– part time or temporary employment or self employed on
own account
World Bank – part time and temporary wage employment
Increasingly blurred distinctions especially between self
employment and wage employment.
Precarious work?

3. Non-standard employment accounts for 33%
of employment in OECD and 40% in Poland
OECD Poland
25
20
15
10
5
0
Temporary Part Time Self
Employed

4. NSE has not increased by as much as is
commonly believed
It was already significant in 1980s
OECD
1985 – 1995 2 percentage points
1995 – 2010 1.5 percentage points
Poland
1995 – 2010
27 to 40 percent

5. No major increase in temporary jobs
in Europe since 2001
EU-27: levels of employment and unemployment (Y)
Thousands
Permanent Temporary employment Unemployment
Thousands
194.0 30.0
192.0
25.0
Permanent employment
190.0
Temporary employment and
188.0
20.0
unemployment
186.0
184.0 15.0
182.0
10.0
180.0
178.0
5.0
176.0
174.0 0.0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

6. Big increase in Poland …
Poland: levels of employment and unemployment (Y)
Permanent Temporary employment Unemployment
Thousands
Thousands
13.0 4.0
3.5
Temporary employment and
Permanent employment
12.5
3.0
12.0
unemployment
2.5
11.5 2.0
1.5
11.0
1.0
10.5
0.5
10.0 0.0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

7. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
PL
ES
PT
NL
SI
SE
FI
FR
DE
CY
EU27
IT
GR
IE
AT
BE
DK
HU
CZ
LU
LV
MT
SK
UK
EE
… to now the highest rate in Europe
BG
LT
RO

8. Very many, very different types of
temporary contracts
• Fixed term (project)
• Probationary
• Leave replacement
• On-call
• Seasonal
• Trainee etc.
FUNCTIONAL EQUIVILENTS
• Some forms of self employment
• family workers
Temporary agency work is not necessarily on a temporary
employment contract

9. Sector: Households as employers accounts for most
of the Polish higher percentages
Households
N.Admin & support
I.Accomod & food
F.Construction
A. Agriculture etc
G.Wholesale & retail
S.Other service
C.Manufacturing Poland
R.Arts
J.Information & com EU-27
M.Prof. activities
H.Transport
K.Financial/insur
Q.Health/social work
E.Water supply
O.Public admin
P.Education
L.Real state
U.Extraterritorial org.
B.Mining
D.Electricity
0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00

10. Temporary versus indefinite contracts
 Wage penalty for temporary work – not for part-time
 Lower employment security for temporary work
 Lower self reported work satisfaction
 Lower provision of training

11. The economics of temporary contracts
(+)
 Flexibility (adjustment costs)
 Wage cost cutting
and tends to increase employment
(-)
 Lower human capital investment and productivity
 Insider outsider wage bargaining
and tends to decrease employment

12. Non-standard employment :
Stepping stones or dead ends?
Define very carefully what you mean by a stepping stone to
a standard employment. Most meaningful is to ask
“Will taking a NSE increase my probability of getting a
standard employment”
It will depend on:
• Type of NSE
• Current labour market status
• Type of standard employment
• Skills and motivation

13. Stepping stones as simple transition rates
Year 1 Year 2 Difference
Temporary
36%
Standard Employment 17%
Unemployed 21%
Can control for age, sex, education 8%
But motivation, experience, precise skills?
A relevant research question would be to take the unemployed as point of
departure.

14. Research suggests…
• Higher transitions for temporary than for self employed
and Part-time (voluntary involuntary)
• Temporary is not a stepping stone in Spain
• But is for some type of temporary in UK
• Not better for young
• Higher when temporary work is more like a standard
employment
• (fixed term contracts higher than casual)
• (When self employment is like dependent employment?)

15. Defining temporary agency work
Authorisation Monitoring
AGENCY
Fee
Employment
contract/relationship Commercial contract
Wage
WORKER USER FIRM
Labour service/assignment
Duration, objective reasons, user sector etc

16. Temporary agency work
as % of total employment
The average penetration
rate in Europe was 1.6% in 201022, up
from 1.4% in 200923 but still a little
short of the 2008 average of 1.7%24.

17. Why does temporary work increase?
1. Widening of the regulation gap between temporary and
permanent contracts
2. Sectoral employment shifts
3. Change in taxes and social security
4. Change in the state of the labour market
Explosion of temporary contract in Spain usually seen in
terms of regulation (1) but also state of the labour market (4)
was probably important

18. The state of the labour market.
The increase in temporary employment in
Sweden in the 1990s
Source: Bertil Holmlund and Donald Storrie “Temporary Work In Turbulent Times: The
Swedish Experience” Economic Journal, vol 112 no 480 pp F245-F269 June 2002

19. Lessons for Poland?
Must do own national research based on
 Understanding of what temporary contracts are in Poland
– “civil contracts” appear quite original
 “Stepping-stone” based on proper counterfactuals
 Better datasets (EU:LFS, SILC)
Segmentation (like in Spain) is unambiguously negative