The resilience of the long-term employment relationship: Evidence from the industrialized countries

The authors challenge the popular idea that the long-term employment relationship is a thing of the past. Focusing on trends in employment tenure, they also investigate the effects of age, the business cycle, temporary employment and other factors relevant to job stability and job security. Although perceived job insecurity has been rising, the labour markets of most industrialized countries show little sign of becoming generally unstable. Country differences in patterns of job stability and instability over time also prove to be stable. This, the authors argue, should refocus the research and policy agendas on optimizing combinations of stability and flexibility.