Skill deficits are a major bottleneck in sustainable activation of the long-term unemployed. Those managing to get back to work often end up in less complex and skill-intensive jobs and have fewer opportunities to develop their potential. Those long-term unemployed not successful in making a transition to work are likely to face even more severe … Continue reading
In Don’t Fear the Robots: Why Automation Doesn’t Mean the End of Work, Roosevelt Fellow Mark Paul challenges the narrative that large-scale automation will imminently lead to mass unemployment and economic insecurity. He debunks the idea that we are on the cusp of a major technological change that will drastically alter the nature of work, … Continue reading
Each year more than 350,000 students start Higher Education (HE) degrees in England at a total cost of around £17 billion paid by graduates in repayments on student loans and the taxpayer (Belfield et al., 2017). This represents a significant investment and has the potential to have considerable implications for the students’ later-life outcomes. Students … Continue reading
What is known about the effects of migration on the happiness of migrants? According to a study by Martijn Hendriks and co-authors, published in the 2018 World Happiness Report, international migrants worldwide evaluate the quality of their lives on average 9 percent higher after migration. This study’s large sample is highly representative of the global … Continue reading
A wholesale reexamination of existing strategies and program administration is needed to enable individuals to pursue new opportunities and fuel the country’s economic growth. Federal and state governments are well positioned to serve as a catalyst for this effort by convening the right parties, aligning goals and incentives, and helping to scale promising efforts through … Continue reading
By Heidi Weston It may be the year of the woman this 2018, but there is still a long way to go in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics industries, also known as STEM. The shortage of women in these jobs means that the gender pay gap will not be bridged until 2069, another long … Continue reading
In Germany, almost 15 per cent of all first-year students leave higher education without obtaining a degree. The German post-secondary education system is tracked, however, and many dropouts enter the labour market with additional non-tertiary vocational training certificates. We therefore examine whether higher education dropouts benefit from additional vocational qualifications obtained outside higher education and … Continue reading
Although employees in low-skilled jobs are as likely as any others to express an interest in receiving training, they actually submit significantly fewer applications for training. How can this gap be explained? While a wish to receive training goes hand in hand with employees’ perception of their career prospects, in conjunction with their aspirations, the … Continue reading
Last year, the Pew Center reported that 72 percent of Americans said they were worried about the impact of automation on jobs – this, despite the unemployment rate at the time being at a twenty-year low (and even lower since). The fears of a jobless dystopia are misplaced. Despite cyclical ups and downs, economies generate … Continue reading
A majority of Americans continue to say the United States is a better place to live as a result of its growing racial and ethnic diversity. About six-in-ten U.S. adults (58%) say that having an increasing number of people of different races, ethnic groups and nationalities in the U.S. makes the country a better place … Continue reading
Since the start of the millennium, more and more people are in work, while working conditions have changed. Strong increase in female employment rate In the period between 2002 and 2017 the employment rate for the total working age population increased from 67 % in 2002 to 72 % in 2017, mainly due to the … Continue reading
Fifty-two percent of adult internet users believe within 30 years, robots will have advanced to the point where they can perform most of the activities currently done by humans, according to a survey undertaken by researchers at the Brookings Institution. The poll also found people divided 32 to 29 percent regarding whether the U.S. government … Continue reading
Hourly labour costs rose by 2.0% in the euro area (EA19) and by 2.7% in the EU28 in the first quarter of 2018, compared with the same quarter of the previous year. In the fourth quarter of 2017, hourly labour costs increased by 1.4% and 2.3% respectively. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical … Continue reading
The coming years will be pivotal for the UK’s labour market. Along with new questions raised by Brexit, the responses to longstanding issues dogging firms and workers alike will be key. When it comes to action points, Britain’s woeful productivity growth since the financial crisis is top of the list but not far below is … Continue reading
In 2017, price levels for consumer goods and services differed widely in the European Union (EU). Denmark(142% of the EU average) had the highest price level, followed by Luxembourg (127%), Ireland and Sweden(both 125%), Finland (122%) and the United Kingdom (117%). At the opposite end of the scale, the lowest price level was found in … Continue reading