CONTINUOUS GLOBAL advances in technology have apparently failed to ensure to future societies the ability to create flexible jobs exclusively through the use of market mechanisms, commanding income levels and being of such character that are compatible with the basic needs of the world population. The logic behind globalization and the segmentation of productive chains have, in part, absorbed pockets of cheap labor throughout the world without necessarily providing their workers with higher income levels. Formal employment is growing at a lower rate than direct investments. If, on the one hand, there are emerging and well compensated opportunities in the flexible labor market, on the other, the informal sector also spans precarious, insecure jobs and poverty. In the peripheral countries, particularly, governments - which are commited to stability - simplely do not have the funding and sufficiently effective structures to ensure the survival of the newly excluded. The employment paradigm is undergoing a definite shift, and there are myriad reasons for concern about the future of social exclusion in the new millenium.
