The workers have little incentive to come. Since benefits last indefinitely, workers are reluctant to move or start a new profession. Still, there are some signs Europe's workforce is becoming more flexible. Training for the 60 drivers included intensive English lessons. Even some hard-core unemployed people are retraining as IT professionals.
Some people are eager to undergo retraining.
Freund, educated as an engineer, has switched careers twice since the end of communism cost him his job at a maker of optical equipment. Yet those are the exceptions. Europe won't boogie to the New Economy until such attitudes change. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.