Atypical work in the European experience Summary

The persistent employment crisis that dogged all of the countries of the European Community, with the exception of Luxembourg, throughout the 1980s has led to the spread of all sorts ofjobs which cannot be compared with full-time, life-time work: part-time employment; temporary employment; jobs created by the public authorities; and work experience schemes for young people, as well as jobs with varied or unusual schedules. The present study follows the evolution of the principal forms of atypical employment during three periods (1983-1985, 1985-1990 and 1990-1994), revealing the constants and the varia-tions, as well as the national divergences in the development of the methods offlexibility and of organisation of working time. The first part looks at divergences and convergences, whilst a second highlights the localisation of the types of atypical employment in certain segments of the labour market. Rbsumb La persistance, durant le de'but des anne'es quatre-vingt, dune crise de l'emploi dans tous les pays de la Comrnunauti europe'enne, d l'exception du Luxembourg, a favorise ' la prolifiration qualitative et quantitative demplois qui ne peuvent Ctre compare's a des emplois a temps plein e