FEMALE LABOR BETWEEN PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT AND DOMESTIC SERVICE: THE GERMAN CLEANING TRADE AS A TEST FOR CURRENT LABOR MARKET STRATEGIES.

As Europe struggles with a crisis of joblessness, various labor market policies have been suggested to remedy the situation. The ultimate policy question is whether unemployment can be reduced by policies that privatize the public sector and promote the low-wage sector. This issue is particularly salient to women since women have always been overrepresented in low-wage jobs. This article analyzes major labor market interventions and their outcomes at both the European Union and the national levels through the case of the female-dominated cleaning trade in West Germany. In particular, analysis focuses on the three main strategies of low-wage job creation: expanding the public sector; tolerating gray labor markets; and providing incentives to households in hopes that they would become employers. Shifts between these strategies resulted in "double privatization": cleaning jobs were transferred from the public sector to private companies and households. However, these policies generally did not boost employment in the long run; the modest numerical growth in jobs was mainly due to full-time employment being split up into "minijobs," without subsistence wages or social insurance coverage, which were often illegal. In an era in which women increasingly depend solely on their own paychecks, such employment increases their economic vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]