Job Market Monitor
Michel Cournoyer
US – Unnoticed President Obama’s action on immigrants integration
[An] aspect of President Obama’s executive action has gone almost unnoticed: the establishment of a taskforce to focus on the integration of immigrants into the economy and their communities. Recognizing the important role that immigrants play in today’s economy, and the growing role they will play in the coming decades, the White House Taskforce on New Americans aims to … Continue reading
Social Security in US – Rising wage inequality has eroded the finances of the system
This issue brief explores how rising wage inequality has affected the financial outlook of Social Security. We first provide a brief overview of Social Security’s funding structure and its current financial outlook based on the Social Security Administration’s, or SSA’s, most recent projections. Next, we highlight relevant wage trends that have impacted the trust funds’ … Continue reading
Canada – Still 270,000 jobs short of full employment says Carolyn Wilkins, Governor Stephen Poloz’s top deputy,
The economy is still 270,000 jobs short of full employment Carolyn Wilkins, Governor Stephen Poloz’s top deputy, warned in a speech Growing angst about the sluggish pace of job creation could provide more cover for the Bank of Canada to lower interest rates again. Carolyn Wilkins, Governor Stephen Poloz’s top deputy, warned in a speech … Continue reading
Aging Labor Force – The case of Germany
“Here is the biggest problem we face,” the senior official from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government told me as he pulled out a pen and drew a pie-graph circle on his napkin. “This is the working-age population of Germany – 45 million people.” Then he drew a thick slice, almost a sixth of the circle: “This … Continue reading
Charlie Hebdo – There is one big element missing from the discussion: unemployment
The deaths of those working at Charlie Hebdo have resulted in a great deal of soul-searching in Europe. Here in Brussels, which had its own moments of anxiety following Charlie Hebdo, there is a focus on what causes radicalization and what can be done to prevent it. A lot of the discussion is on better … Continue reading
Extended joblessness could dampen our personalities
Long periods of unemployment drain our bank accounts and weaken the economy. New research suggests extended joblessness could also dampen our personalities. And that can make it harder to find more work. A study published this month in the Journal of Applied Psychology examined a sample of 6769 German adults – 3733 men and 3036 women – who … Continue reading
Vocational Education – Measuring the Specificity of Occupational Training Curricula
In this paper we analyze the training curricula of VET (vocational education and training) occupations using detailed data on learned skills from official trainings regulations. We explore how differences in the skill bundles of occupational curricula can be measured and how such differences affect graduates’ long-term labor market outcomes. Based on Lazear’s skill weights approach, … Continue reading
Vocational Education – Does more specific education lead to wage penalties ? No study finds
We analyze horizontal mismatch in Switzerland defined as a mismatch between the type of skills acquired by students and the skills required for their job. We investigate the argument in the literature that the more specific an education system is, the higher are the wage penalties due to horizontal mismatch. Switzerland is an ideal case … Continue reading
US – Downtown employment centers of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas are recording faster job growth than their peripheries
For over half a century, American cities were decentralizing, with suburban areas surpassing city centers in both population and job growth. It appears that these economic and demographic tides are now changing. Over the past few years, urban populations in America’s cities have grown faster than outlying areas, and our research shows that jobs are … Continue reading
US – The Wage Stagnation in charts
Wage stagnation for the vast majority was not created by abstract economic trends. Rather, wages were suppressed by policy choices made on behalf of those with the most income, wealth, and power. In the past few decades, the American economy generated lots of income and wealth that would have allowed substantial living standards gains for … Continue reading
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) – To slash thousands more jobs
The bank, which has now reported seven straight losses adding up to £49.7bn since its 2008 bail-out, also said it would slash thousands more jobs in a dramatic restructuring of its investment bank, exiting two-thirds of the unit’s geographies and cutting around £70bn of assets. Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at RBS … Continue reading
Microsoft in China – To cut 9,000 Nokia jobs
Microsoft Corp. plans to shut two mobile-handset manufacturing plants in China formerly run by Nokia Corp., cutting about 9,000 jobs in total, various reports said Thursday. Microsoft, which bought Nokia’s handset business last April, scheduled the closure of the plants — located in Beijing and the southeastern city of Dongguan — earlier this month and … Continue reading
Workplace pension scheme membership in UK – Up to record 59% in 2014, from 50% in 2013 ONS finds
Workplace pension scheme membership has increased to 59% in 2014, from 50% in 2013, driven by increases in membership of occupational defined contribution and group personal and group stakeholder schemes.The increase is likely to be driven by automatic enrolment. Occupational defined benefit pensions schemes represented less than half (49%) of total workplace pension membership in … Continue reading
Minimum Wage in UK – Low Pay Commission recommends 3%
The Low Pay Commission (LPC) has today recommended to the Government that the adult rate of the National Minimum Wage, which applies to workers aged 21 and over, should rise by 3 per cent to £6.70 from October 2015. The LPC’s aim is to advise on a rate that protects as many low-paid workers as … Continue reading
Zero-hours Contracts in UK – Save the country from eurozone levels of unemployment’
Business groups defend companies who use zero-hour contracts after new figures reveal 697,000 people in the UK are on them Business groups have defended companies using zero-hours contracts, arguing that they have protected the UK from the high levels of unemployment seen on the continent. The Institute of Directors (IoD) and Confederation of British Industry … Continue reading
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