Issue A persistent divide between the top and bottom of the labour market

Summary

The report finds that the bottom of the labour market has not vanished in the knowledge economy. Low-skilled flexible work is shrinking, yet the distance between the top and the bottom of the job market remains. Jobs at the lower end tend to be poorly paid and insecure and are largely filled by labour migrants, while the people doing them face higher risks of unemployment, poor health and poverty. Graduates of universities and universities of applied sciences earn more, buy pricier homes, build wealth and pass it on to children and grandchildren, whereas the prosperity of vocationally trained and other groups rises more slowly. According to the report, this uneven development of welfare creates many tensions in society. Phrases about work no longer paying off or a middle class left behind now circulate, and some workers feel that politics is not there for them.