COLLECTIVIST VERSUS INDIVIDUALIST MOBILITY REGIMES - STRUCTURAL-CHANGE AND JOB MOBILITY IN 4 COUNTRIES

Job mobility is produced by structural forces of expansion and contrac tion as well as by individual choices. But labor market structure and welfare state policies will create distinctive national patterns of la bor force adjustment to shifts in technology, markets, and the consequ ent demand for particular forms of labor. In a four-nation comparative study, U.S. rates of job mobility showed the greatest sensitivity to structural change and to the labor market resources of individual work ers. The Netherlands was at the opposite pole, with worker outcomes la rgely insulated from structural forces. Germany's strong labor market boundaries channeled adjustment within sectors or between employment a nd nonemployment, while Sweden's pattern was intermediate between that of the United States and Germany.