Comparisons between British and German employment performance in recent years have characterized the two countries as, respectively, finding a formula of high employment based on high consumption expenditure financed by household debt, and remaining tied to an external trade and low consumption model that no longer creates jobs. Placing these two countries in a wider perspective of all European Union member states and the Usa reveals a different picture. Two different patterns seem associated with high employment levels: a northern European one of low consumption expenditure and high household debt, and an Anglophone one of high consumption expenditure and high household debt. Links for these contrasting models are sought in their very different social policy and industrial relations systems. Questions are raised concerning the role of household debt in the northern European cases, and the lack of any clear patterns differentiating much of western, southern and central Europe.only subscribers can see the full article

Issue 4-08 of Rps is devoted to the fundamental, continuing and complex relations between the unions and welfare in a perspective that tries to go beyond the more immediate and traditional relation between unions and labour relations. only subscribers can see the full article