ERM Quarterly - Quarter 4, January 2017

In the 1990s, Alan Greenspan talked of ‘irrational exuberance’ in the stock markets. Unfounded optimism had driven share prices up to values that no rational analysis of company or country performance could justify. At the end of 2016, the Financial Times marked the end of the year by talking of ‘irrational equanimity’.

This issue includes: Macroeconomic trends and prospects; Job creation and job loss at a glance (01/10/16 - 31/12/16); Sectoral distribution of job losses and gains, and top five cases; Support instruments in focus: supporting internationalisation; Case in focus: VW cuts 30,000 jobs in move to electric car production; Case in focus: Job cuts at Swedish Migration Agency; Case in focus: ING Bank – Job losses in Belgium and the Netherlands.