A study of transitional labour markets (TLMs), which are an attempt to address the factors and policies that can prevent high levels of unemployment and exclusion from paid work. It addresses issues such as whether working-time flexibility can integrate more people into paid employment.

European labour markets have seen the simultaneous rise of unemployment and working-time flexibility. While unemployment generates widespread concern about social exclusion, the reorganization of flexible working-time has been greeted with more ambivalence. The concept of transitional labour markets (TLMs) is an attempt to address and analyze the factors and policies that can prevent high levels of unemployment and exclusion from paid work. This text addresses three key questions: can working-time flexibility integrate more people into paid employment?; can working-time flexibility prevent unemployment?; and is it possible for the barriers between core and peripheral employment to become more permeable in the way advocated by the concept of TLMs? Drawing on both quantitative longitudinal panel study data and qualitative case study material the authors (whose expertise is drawn from the fields of economics, sociology and law) provide a perspective on the nature and implications of TMLs in Spain, Sweden, Ireland, Britain, Germany, France and The Netherlands.

Part 1 Theoretical and methodological issues: working-time, social integration and transitional labour markets, Colette Fagan and Michel Lallement
working-time regimes and transitions in comparative perspective, Dominique Anxo and Jacqueline O'Reilly. Part 2 Labour market transitions: transitions between different working time arrangements - a comparison of Sweden and The Netherlands, Dominique Anxo, Elena Stancanelli and Donald Storrie
moving up or out? Transitions through part-time employment in Britain and Germany, Silke Bothfeld and Jacqueline O'Reilly
transitions through part-time work in Spain and the United Kingdom - a route into secure employment? Mark Smith, Inmaculada Cebrian Lopez et al
peripheral labour in peripheral markets? Mobility and working-time within transitional labour markets among women in Ireland and Spain, Inmaculada Cebrian Lopez, Vanessa Gash and Gloria Moreno. Part 3 Employment contracts and company practices: time, lifestyles and transitions in France and Sweden, Dominique Anxo, Jean-Yves Boulin et al
restructuring internal labour markets - integration and exclusion in the British and German banking sectors, Jill Rubery, Jacqueline O'Reilly and Silke Morschett
working-time transitions and employment statuses in the British, French and Dutch health-care sectors, Damian Grimshaw, Frans Kerstholt et al.