This study examines flexibility and security of the labor market in 1998, 2003, and 2005, mainly that of 22 OECD countries, using principal component analysis, and attempts an international comparison of these data. As a result, we identify “Anglo-Saxon” type of relatively high flexibility and low security, “European Continent” type of low flexibility and high security, “Southern Europe” type low both in flexibility and security, and “Northern Europe” type that shows flexibility similar to that of “European Continent” one but has a relatively high security. The analysis of Korea’s labor market reveals Korea is about average in terms of flexibility but its security remains significantly low. Meanwhile, between the period from 1998 to 2003, Korea saw the combination of policies aimed at enhancing security at the cost of flexibility and since 2003 both flexibility and security have dropped. From 1998 to 2005, Korea ended up sacrificing flexibility without simultaneously making an improvement in security. Thus, the revision of labor market policies in Korea is strongly recommended.

During the same period, Denmark and the Netherlands achieved a winning combination of flexibility and security. In review of their labor market policy, Danish policy for flexicurity centers on merging security in terms of income and employment with flexibility from the external numerical and functional aspects, while the Netherlands places greater weight on marrying combination-employment security with external-internal numerical flexibility in policy implementation. These examples of the two countries illustrate that the key to a well-balanced combination and harmony of flexibility and security lies in whether Korea can find a key link setting in motion a virtuous cycle of flexibility and security. Another implication from the cases is that no matter what is the most appropriate for Korea as a flexicurity model, external numerical flexibility and employment security are both the starting point and the goal of flexicurity policy. This is because lack of job security leads to loss in the meaning of other types of flexibility and security, and in achieving progress towards greater employment security, hiring and firing workers should be carried out freely and actively.

on the one hand, empirical results show that confrontational labor-management relations are major stumbling blocks to achieving flexicurity in the Korean labor market. Companies have difficulty in implementing restructuring especially due to labor unions which are members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. Therefore, on labor-management relations, putting an end to confrontation and building a win-win relationship is a matter of great urgency. Issues regarding employment bring confrontation between union and management, so companies need to minimize conflicts in industrial relations by improving wage and functional flexibility as well as numerical flexibility of employment. on the other hand, corporate investment leads to job creation. Accordingly, the government has to create a business-friendly environment while giving an increasing commitment to enhancing employment security and income security through active labor market policy, establishment of the social safety nets, and unemployment insurance system.