This article is a discussion of the role of education in demography, and focuses specifically on efforts by Wolfgang Lutz and his team to add education as a fourth dimension to demographic projection models, after place, age, and sex. In this piece, I review a very important publication produced by the Wittgenstein Centre, World Population … Continue reading
Should professionals mind the skills gap when applying for a position? In new research from global staffing firm Robert Half, HR managers said 42 percent of resumes they receive, on average, are from candidates who don’t meet the job requirements. In a separate survey of workers, 78 percent admitted they would submit for a role … Continue reading
Recent policy discussion has highlighted the variety of ways in which the world of work is changing. In this regard, one recent development has been that many countries have seen increases in forms of non-standard work. This raises questions over whether such trends have been beneficial, representing increased flexibility and adaptability in the workforce, or … Continue reading
Taylor Fry were commissioned by Superu to look at where people go when they move off benefit in New Zealand. We used the linked administrative datasets available on Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) to examine the characteristics of, and outcomes for people who move off a benefit. We looked at people who moved … Continue reading
How do immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy? One relatively understudied dimension of immigrant activity is entrepreneurship. A recent IZA Discussion Paper by J. David Brown, John S. Earle, Mee Jung Kim, and Kyung Min Lee examines measures of innovation for firms owned by entrepreneurs who are foreign-born vs. U.S.-born. The data come from the … Continue reading
The CIPD’s report Over-skilled and underused: Investigating the untapped potential of UK skills, based on a representative survey of over 3,700 UK employees and online focus groups, explores how well people’s skills are used and developed in the workplace. The survey found that more than a third (37%) of workers have the skills to cope … Continue reading
In the week ending April 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 192,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since September 6, 1969 when it was 182,000. The previous week’s level was revised up by 1,000 from 196,000 to 197,000. … Continue reading
Millennials had higher incomes and median wealth than young Gen-Xers at the same age, but also considerably more mortgage debt Examining debt and wealth for young households, who have begun to accumulate assets and debt over a period of sustained home price inflation, provides another perspective on the health of balance sheets in Canada. A … Continue reading
The biggest force behind the global profit margin expansion has been the decline in the labor share of output. A key factor that has contributed to this reduction in labor’s bargaining power versus capital is the decline of organized labor and unions. This phenomenon has occurred over decades for an array of reasons that are … Continue reading
This paper explores how technology affects labor market outcomes in Asia through the creation of new types of work. It investigates how workers’ characteristics can influence one’s chances of accessing emerging occupations—defined as occupation groups with new job titles. Comparisons of successive lists of the National Classification of Occupations in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, and … Continue reading
Au cours des trente dernières années, les acteurs des champs de l’emploi, de la formation professionnelle et de l’éducation ont progressivement reconnu le manque d’opérationnalité des concepts de « métier » et « qualification » dans un contexte économique et technologique en fortes mutations. En effet, ces concepts se caractérisent par un lien clairement établi entre une liste de … Continue reading
We present estimates of changes in skills utilisation and in the returns to skills in the UK for 2002-2016 using new measures of skills derived from a systematic and detailed matching between the US O*NET system and UK SOC. Over the period, there is strongly increasing utilisation of both analytical skills and interpersonal skills, and … Continue reading
Industrial production edged down 0.1 percent in March after edging up 0.1 percent in February; for the first quarter as a whole, the index slipped 0.3 percent at an annual rate. Manufacturing production was unchanged in March after declining in both January and February. The index for utilities rose 0.2 percent, while mining output moved down 0.8 percent. At 110.2 percent … Continue reading
Canada’s record-low unemployment rate was one of several notable labour market trends in 2018. While the overall labour force participation rate continued to decrease, in keeping with the aging population, it reached a record high 83.2% among women in the core working ages of 25 to 54. The long-term trend of increasing labour force participation for people aged 55 and older was … Continue reading
The CIA is proposing changes to the age at which benefits should be made available to Canadians under Canada’s retirement income systems and tax-assisted private savings programs, specifically the Canada Pension Plan/Quebec Pension Plan (CPP/QPP), Old Age Security (OAS), and registered pension plans and Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs). This document is intended to engage … Continue reading