Flexicurity

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Flexicurity (a portmanteau of flexibility and security) is a welfare state model with a pro-active labour market policy. The model is a combination of easy hiring and firing (flexibility for employers) and high benefits for the unemployed (security for the employees). It was first implemented in Denmark by the social democratic Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in the 1990s.

The EU has investigated flexicurity as a possible future European model, mainly because the model has contributed to near-full employment in Denmark with under 4% of the population unemployed, according to the OECD. Unlike the controversial youth labor laws proposed in France, this law does not discriminate against youth, but rather holds the same expectations for all Danes: an unemployed person is required to constantly seek employment or further education in order to receive full benefits.