But then you don't get the countercyclical effect of unemployment relief - with 20% being unemployed, you don't get an actual income reduction of a fifth...

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

Not sure about that. The swedish unemployment subsidies are - for all their faults - really well adapted to industrial workers. If you have worked a year or more and done the bureacracy right, you will get about a year and a half on 80% of your former salary. So, in effect there is more demand reduction this way. Unless the rules for part-time unemployment covers this, which is more then I know. The rules keep on changing.

From a crass economic standpoint, if you first work less for a year and then is fired anyway you will get 80% of the lower wage (that is 64% of the wage you had before the crisis). Though from a social standpoint it is better to have everyone working 80%, as the effects of being shut out from productive society can be pretty harsh.

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