What types of jobs are growing: well-paid managerial jobs or low-paid auxiliary jobs, high-end professional jobs or bottom-end service jobs? Can occupational change transform affluent countries into enlarged middle-class societies? Or, on the contrary, are we heading towards a future of increasingly divided class societies? Do changes in the employment structure allow forthcoming generations to move towards more rewarding jobs than those held by their parents - or is downward mobility the more likely outcome? This book throws new light on these timely questions by drawing on extensive evidence of employment data on the pattern of occupational change in Britain, Denmark, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland since 1990. It documents the change in the employment structure, and examines the five underlying driving forces: technology, globalization, education, migration, and institutions. The book discusses whether governments really have no other choice than either occupational upgrading with soaring unemployment or full employment with expanding low-end jobs. The book gives a clear picture of the future of work, skills, and employment in today's Europe, contributing to the debate in economic sociology and labour economics.

Daniel Oesch is a professor at the Life Course and Inequality Research Centre (LINES) at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He lectures on labour market policy, social stratification, and industrial relations. He studied at the Universities of Geneva, Lisbon, and Florence, and earned his PhD from the University of Zurich. Alongside his academic work, Oesch had served for six years as national secretary of the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions in Berne. He is the author of Redrawing the Class Map (2006, Palgrave Macmillan).

• Introduction
• 1: The Debate in the Literature on Occupational Change
• 2: Occupational Upgrading in Europe since 1990
• 3: Demand-Side Influences on Occupational Change: Trade and Technology
• 4: Supply-Side Influences on Occupational Change: Education and Migration
• 5: The Role of Institutions: Wage-Setting and Occupational Change
• 6: Upgrading at the Cost of Unemployment?
• Conclusion