스웨덴 노동시장의 유연성-안정성 균형 실험: 황금삼각형과 이중보호체계

The criticism that Denmark, of which the flexicurity model had been anempirical standard, failed to maintain the flexibility-security balance duringthe financial crisis has cast doubts on the practice of the flexibility-securitybalance. That’s why we need to conduct empirical studies concerning thepractice of flexicurity model with a third case. The present study aims toanalyze whether the golden triangle of flexicurity policy factors realizesboth flexibility and security at the same time, how the launch ofbourgeois government and the outbreak of economic crisis has influencedthe golden triangle, and whether the flexibility-security balance is beingmaintained. The Swedish labor market, rather than being a combination of highflexibility and high security, guarantees high security in both terms ofemployment and income. Such features are the results of the dualprotection system which consists of the protection layer of nation-level legalregulation as well as the protection layer of industry-level labor unions. The Swedish golden triangle, while guaranteeing high employmentsecurity and income security for workers, does not outright deny thenecessity of flexibility in labor utilization. Labor unions allow yet strictlyregulate the flexibility of labor utilization mainly via temporary workeremployment. In order to minimize the adverse effects of flexibility, laborunions try to guarantee employment security and income security throughactive labor market policies and complementation of private income protection measures. The income protection system for unemployed workers, as mostcontroversial among those three policy factors of the golden triangle, haskept emerging as one of the core campaign issues during recent generalelection times. The voluntary unemployment insurance policy of the publicincome protection system for unemployed workers, has undergone majorchanges such as strengthened eligibility requirements or the reduction ofthe replacement rate, as part of the 2007 labor market reform. The policy factors of the golden triangle has not changed much since2007. The 2007 reform, which reinforced the fiscal austerity policy and thelabor principle as basic principles of the Swedish model, was rather aprocess of adjustment in the face of changing external conditions. Moreover,the adverse effects of changes in the voluntary unemployment insurancepolicy were minimized by the buffering role of the private income protectionmeasures, so that the flexibility-security balance of the labor market alongwith ‘managed flexibility’ could be maintained.