Abstract
This paper analyzes the factors contributing to diversity in labour market performance to help dentify both obstacles for jobless persons to (re-)enter the labour market as well as the direction of policies that could help in this respect and, thus, guide policy makers. The analysis focuses on five Central European countries – Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia – that, despite being similar with regard to their economic structure, industrial traditions and culture, closely linked through trade and production chains and therefore prone to synchronized economic fluctuations, have very different labour market performance, including during and after the recent economic recession.