The macroscopic changes to post‐industrial employment that were examined in the previous chapter are unlikely to affect all nations similarly. Job loss through de‐industrialization, e.g., will be more massive where existing industries are uncompetitive (as in Britain or Spain) and less devastating elsewhere—perhaps because firms are more adaptable (as in much of Danish, Italian, or German industry), but possibly also because wage costs decline (as in the US). De‐industrialization may or may not cause heavy unemployment, depending on skill and production structure, and also on how labour...

The macroscopic changes to post‐industrial employment that were examined in the previous chapter are unlikely to affect all nations similarly. Job loss through de‐industrialization, e.g., will be more massive where existing industries are uncompetitive (as in Britain or Spain) and less devastating elsewhere—perhaps because firms are more adaptable (as in much of Danish, Italian, or German industry), but possibly also because wage costs decline (as in the US). De‐industrialization may or may not cause heavy unemployment, depending on skill and production structure, and also on how labour markets are managed; most of Europe has,e.g., transformed mass lay‐offs into early retirement. Similar root causes of post‐industrial employment will, therefore, have radically divergent outcomes—there is no such thing as one post‐industrial model because the institutional make‐up of nations differs, and so also does their choice of how to manage change. The different sections of this chapter are: Industrial Relations; Labour Market Regulation; The Dilemmas of Flexibilization; The Welfare State and the Reservation Wage; Wage Regulation; Employment Protection; The Regulatory Infrastructure and the Management of Industrial Decline; Managing the Equality—Jobs Trade‐Off; The Hump‐Shaped Curve—a quadratic measure of labour market rigidities; and National Idiosyncrasies and Welfare Regimes.