Unemployment Safety Net – Denmark

Denmark tightens its generous jobless benefits, By Liz Alderman, August 16, 2010, New York Times: “How long is too long to be paid to go without a job? As extended unemployment swells almost everywhere across the advanced industrial world, that question is turning into a lightning rod for governments. For years, Denmark was held out as a model to countries with high unemployment and as a progressive touchstone to liberals in the United States. The Danes, despite their lavish social welfare state, managed to keep joblessness remarkably low. But now Denmark – which allows employers to hire and fire at will while relying on an elaborate system of training, subsidies for those between jobs and aggressive measures to press the unemployed into available openings – is facing its own strains. As a result, it is beginning to tighten up…”