| dc.description.abstract | The article presents a comparative analysis of standard and non-standard employment (part-time employment, fixed-term employment, self-employment and employment without a contract) in the Czech Republic and Hungary. It examines what the weight of the various types of employment is, and to what extent standard employment has the same meaning in the two countries. Also, it analyses what gender, age groups, educational groups and branches are particularly exposed to flexibility, and what the relationship is between flexibility and income. Finally, it discusses to what extent the differences observed between the two countries are linked to broader labour market developments and to diverse approaches towards the creation of post-socialist capitalism. The analysis shows converging as well as diverging tendencies between the two countries. They have similar levels of standard employment, but standard employment is constituted differently in terms of income, hours worked and working-time patterns. Also, the composition of non-standard forms of employment and their relationship to income is different. In both countries, standard employment is low in the sectors of agriculture and trade and services, as well as for the young, the old and the lowly educated. Women have higher rates of standard employment than men. The Czech labour market is however much more 'egalitarian' and the Hungarian one more 'polarised', while employment is most precarious in Hungary. The differences between the two countries are linked to the stronger market orientation of the Hungarian post-socialist reforms, as well as to the fact that during the 1990s aggregate employment in Hungary fell much more strongly than in the Czech Republic. | |