situation to cope with these challenges. We should stress that these transformations put
additional pressure on the welfare provision and also affect labour market structures. In
Portugal, besides the shift towards cost-containment in domains such as social care, health
and pensions9
, labour market reforms currently undertaken involve a shift from recommodification
towards the creation of equal opportunities for commodification (Streeck
2001: 26). The following section provides us with a characterization of the ongoing reconfiguration
of the Portuguese labour market.
3. Characterization of a changing labour market
In Portugal, as within other European societies, major labour market changes (e.g. high
levels of unemployment, the diversification of forms of employment) are putting under
pressure the existent welfare state. At the same time, as we stressed previously in the paper,
one of the characteristics of the Portuguese welfare state, related namely to the outsider-insider
divisions on the provision of welfare, has impacts on the labour market itself
and on the quality of jobs undertaken, most of all, by young people, long-term unemployed
(LTU) and women. By saying this, we emphasize that the general trend towards the
flexibilization and diversification of forms of employment, with a substantial increase in
fixed-term contracts and part-time employment has particularly negative effects on the
Portuguese labour market and on these social groups in a more deep and persistent way.
3.1. A characterization of the Portuguese labour market
Before we address some of the changes occurring in the Portuguese labour market, we
highlight some of the main structural problems requiring policy action and in-depth
reforms: