Labour market flexibility

Labour market flexibility refers to the speed with which labour markets adapt to fluctuations and changes in society, the economy or production.

The most common definition of labour market flexibility has been the neo-liberal definition. This entailed the ease of labour market institutions in enabling labour markets to reach a continuous equilibrium determined by the intersection of the demand and supply curve. In the words of Siebert, labour market institutions were seen to inhibit "the clearing functions of the market by weakening the demand for labor, making it less attractive to hire a worker by explicitly pushing up the wage costs or by introducing a negative shadow price for labor; by distorting the labor supply; and by impairing the equilibrating function of the market mechanism (for instance, by influencing bargaining behavior)."

The most famous distinction of labour market flexibility is given by Atkinson. Based on the strategies companies use, he notes that there can be four types of flexibility.

External numerical flexibility refers to the adjustment of the labour intake, or the number of workers from the external market. This can be achieved by employing workers on temporary work or fixed-term contracts or through relaxed hiring and firing regulations or in other words relaxation of employment protection legislation, where employers can hire and fire permanent employees according to the firms’ needs.

Internal numerical flexibility, sometimes known as working time flexibility or temporal flexibility. This flexibility achieved by adjusting working hours or schedules of workers already employed within the firm. This includes part-time, flexi time or flexible working hours or shifts (including night shifts and weekend shifts), working time accounts, leaves such as parental leave, overtime.

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