Öffentliche Meinung in Europa zur Sozialpolitik 2009

This report starts off by looking at Europeans’ current employment situation in terms of the proportion of people who are employed and the extent to which people remain with one employer or change employers over their career. The report then considers the extent to which there have been job losses now and over time, either for people personally, their immediate family or colleagues. It then determines that the level of concern regarding future job losses is at its highest in this current wave, most probably due to Europeans feeling that the worst of the economic crisis is yet to come. The report then turns to European citizens’ own vision for the future – their personal confidence that they will keep or find a job and, if unemployed, the expectations about the level of social protection that will be provided. Lastly, this report looks at the level of public approval for measures promoting the concept of 'flexicurity' – a policy approach which combines more flexible labour markets with high levels of employment security and social protection.