Abstract
Using individual-level data from the 2010 wave of the European Working Conditions
Survey (EWCS), and country-level data on unemployment, employment protection
legislation and union density for 21 European countries, this paper provides a comprehensive
multi-level analysis of the determinants of indefinite employment contracts.
The authors find that workers’ autonomy on the job, the intensity of computer use, and
the presence of general and specific skills are associated with greater contract security.
Perhaps more importantly, the authors find a strong negative effect of unemployment,
particularly on workers cumulating multiple sources of labor market vulnerability,
such as young age, low skill, low autonomy, and immigrant status, especially but not
exclusively in the Mediterranean countries most affected by the crisis.
