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CHAPTER l

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others tend to narrow the scope and the rangę of application of the*. A new prevailing pattern has not emerged yet, and it is not likely to energe soon: whilethe need for flexibility and the search for cheap and disciplined labour push for a wider adoptlon of external labour. market strategies, the high ąuality of technologies and, above all, the organizati ona 1 complexity of the production processes *ight push in the opposite direction (these observations, however, which nostly apply to Banufacture and to large and advanced service industry, *ust be reconsidered in the light of the changes occurred - not only in the prevailing size of fir*s but • also in the sectorial composition of econonlc activities). Correspondingly, labour unions strength and coverage tended to decline practically everywhere. Partly as a conseąuence of this, there has been a relevant wave of 'concession bargaining', according to which workers gave up not only shares of wagę rates, but also aany of the rights they had previously obtained in the sphere of working conditions (job security, job guarantees, seniority rights, etc.);

(g.3) in the sectorial composition of economic activitie8. Everywhere *anufacturing activities declined in favour of services. Part of the phenomenon is someway spurious, sińce is due to the fact that part of the service activities, previously perforaed within ■anufacturing Industries, have been transferred to the service industry and are now bought fro* it; but part of it i8 genuine, and *ade for the invention of the new and rather queer expresslon of 'de-industrialization'. Within the enlarging activities, that of training has to be ■entioned. Alaost everywhere the nuiber of people whose job consists in training activities has increased, both within firas and in the public sector, creating a network of vested interests around such activities;

(g.4) in the territorial distribution of expanding and declining econoaic activities. This aakes for an uneven territorial distribution of uneaployaent rates, usually not coapensated by labour territorial aobility;

(g.5) in the composition of public sector activities and tasks. Here the patterns are partly differentiated aaong countries, in the sense that the decline of welfare provisions induced in soie countries a decline in the public eaployaent in such doaalns, in others only a decline in transfer payaents.

On the other hand, the aost coaaon patterns concern the fact that alaost eyerywhere there has been either the creation of new age.ncies dealing with the various forms of labour pollcies, or the. attribiition of such tasks to previously