Page 70 - ASEAN-EU Dialogue 2018: Regional and Inter-Regional Economic Cooperation: Identifying Priorities for ASEAN and the EU

balance is highly successful, with Norway having the highest rate of female labour force
participation among OECD countries (Kinoshita and Guo, 2015). Recent statistics show that
about 83 percent of mothers with young children are employed (Kinoshita and Guo, 2015).
This is attributed to comprehensive parental provisions and subsidised child day-care for
working parents.

Nordic countries are often known as ‘welfare states’ and generally provide ample social
security to their workers (Furuoka, 2017a). For example, Finland extends generous public
support to families through high levels of maternity and parental leave allowances, long periods
of payment and excellent day-care service provisions (Kinoshita and Guo, 2015). Additionally,
strong gender equality in Nordic countries provides equal opportunity and labour market access
to women. The utilisation of female workers, especially in view of their rising education level
in the long term, can contribute to a country’s economic growth. Non-standard work forms
provide more alternative to workers, enabling them to remain employed while enjoying greater
personal autonomy, increased earning potential, flexibility, and more control over work-life
balance (Walker, 2011). This can potentially reduce unemployment problems. Furuoka (2017a)
suggests that this explains why some European countries, such as Nordic welfare states, may
not have problems of high unemployment.

Figure 12.1 presents the unemployment rates of Nordic countries from 1980 to 2015 (World
Bank, 2018). Despite some occasional differences among them, there is still a common pattern
in the unemployment dynamics of these countries, especially since the mid-2000s. In the 1980s,
the unemployment rates in Nordic countries, with the exception of Denmark, were low, at four
percent or less. Although the mid-1990s saw a rise in these figures, instances of high
unemployment were relatively short-lived compared to other European countries such as
Germany, France, Spain and Italy. Norway, in particular, has maintained an unemployment
rate of approximately four percent since the late 1990s, while the rates for Denmark and
Sweden have been stabilising at less than eight percent over the past ten years. In other words,
these countries seem to have smaller unemployment issues than other European economies. It
should be noted that Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in the region and the country
provides well-established social security for its workers. Although Norway has generous
provision of social security protection, the country does not face the problem of unemployment
hysteresis. As suggested earlier, this is likely a result of its flexible working conditions and
non-standard employment practices.

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