Jornada de Trabalho: O Exemplo Europeu [Hours of work: The European Example

Abstract

This paper examines the role played by the decline in average annual hours of work per person in employment over the behavior of unemployment rate in Europe since II World War. The results show that, during the Golden Age of Capitalism in the twentieth century, the pronounced reduction in the average annual hours of work per person in employment (which can be traced to legal action or to particularly negotiation between the social partners) has been very important to keep the unemployment rate at very low levels in the main European countries. Nevertheless, after the eigthies, there has been an important decline in the rate of reduction of average annual hours of work per person in employment. Since then, this fact explains a great part of the raise of the unemployment rates in European countries.