Michel Cournoyer

Canada Skills Gap in Pictures / 25 occupations desperately needing workers

Undermatching: academically capable low-income and minority students who do graduate from high school and are well prepared for college who do not succeed

“It has become a truism and a rare example of political consensus: Educators, researchers, and policymakers across the political spectrum agree that America must send more of its young people to college and must find ways to help them graduate” writes Jay Sherwin in Make Me a Match: Helping Low-Income and First-Generation Students Make Good College Choices … Continue reading →

India / A million graduating engineers struggling

Somewhere between a fifth to a third of the million students graduating out of India’s engineering colleges run the risk of being unemployed. Others will take jobs well below their technical qualifications in a market where there are few jobs for India’s overflowing technical talent pool. Beset by a flood of institutes (offering a varying … Continue reading →

Youth Unemployment in Africa: creativity and talents could be harnessed

With the youngest population in the world, Africa’s youth unemployment is becoming worrisome. However, the abundant creativity and talents of Africa’s young people could be harnessed to help turn the continent’s socioeconomic fortunes around, reports Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor Senegalese opposition politicians denounced the country’s high unemployment rate to mobilize youth against former President Abdoulaye … Continue reading →

China / The official unemployment rate is only official

In good times and bad, China’s official unemployment rate has barely budged. It’s now at 4.1% where it has been since the third quarter of 2010. It has hovered around the 4% level since 2002 (though it plummeted all the way down to 3.6% in 2001). It’s not much use to anybody, particularly those who … Continue reading →

British Army / Redundancy notices send to 4,480 soldiers as campaign for 10,000 new recruits is launched

More than 4,000 soldiers have been axed in the latest round of defence job cuts. The Ministry of Defence today announced 4,480 redundancy letters have been sent to troops under plans to cut the number of regulars to 82,000 by 2018. But the government was accused of a ‘failed strategy’ as it launched a recruitment … Continue reading →

OneWest / To lay off 725 in Austin

Pasadena, California-based OneWest Bank will lay off 725 workers in Austin, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing with the Texas Workforce Commission. The layoffs will take place through August 31, 2013, and will affect mostly call center workers. The move is the second-largest layoff in Texas this year, according to the … Continue reading →

Commerzbank / To cut thousands of jobs worldwide

Germany’s second biggest lender, Commerzbank, has struck a deal with the staff council about planned layoffs. The cuts are to lay the ground for a profitable retail banking business. Germany’s partly state-owned Commerzbank has reached a deal with its staff council to cut 5,000 jobs globally, the business newspaper “Handelsblatt” reported Tuesday. The lender warned … Continue reading →

Job Search Skills / A software system to help people improve their conversational and interview skills from MIT

MIT scientists have developed a software system to help people improve their conversational and interview skills. Experts say that social phobias affect about 15 million adults in the United States with public speaking high on the list of such phobias. In some cases, fears of social situations can be especially acute. For example, individuals with … Continue reading →

Older workers / Half of a Boston company’s workforce is part-time senior citizens

Half of a Boston company’s workforce is part-time senior citizens, countering myths about value of older workers. No Freedom 55 here. When a special order comes in that calls for a steady hand and a sure eye, the work at Vita Needle often goes to a machine operator called Bill Ferson. For the past 25 … Continue reading →

Apprenticeship / Leads to substantially lower unemployment rates research finds

How to best prepare non-college bound youth for the labor market? asks Matthias Parey in Vocational Schooling versus Apprenticeship Training — Evidence from Vacancy Data on cep.lse.ac.uk (Adapted chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor to follow). Different approaches compete in this field, including firm-based apprenticeships, full-time vocational schooling, and on-the-job learning. Little is known about how effective these … Continue reading →

India / Poorer states creating most jobs

Most of the poorer, less industrialized states like Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Bihar appear to have done well in increasing their work force in the past decade according to recently released Census 2011 data. Surprisingly, richer or more urbanized states like Punjab, Haryana and Kerala have lagged far behind in job creation. But if you take … Continue reading →

India / Will the world’s most populous country by 2028 reap a ‘demographic dividend’ ?

Given the one-child policy’s lock on China’s fertility, nobody expected it to remain the world’s most populous country forever. India had been projected to grab this title by 2045 or even 2035. But a new UN report notes that we are hurtling towards this ‘takeover’ faster than anticipated and will become the world’s most populous … Continue reading →

Canada Job Grant / Deeply flawed say Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation and the Caledon Institute for Social Policy

Ottawa’s proposed Canada Job Grant is deeply flawed and should be abandoned, a joint report to be released Monday by two policy think tanks says. Despite the upbeat TV ads Ottawa is running in support of its new $15,000 a person training program, it’s far from clear the program will deliver the promised results or … Continue reading →

India / Must focus on jobs for growth says Just Jobs

India must make employment a key driver of its growth strategy as higher economic growth by itself does not create more jobs, according to a leading US research organisation advocating sustainable development. “Indian policymakers cannot assume that higher economic growth will automatically lead to more jobs,” Sabina Dewan, founder and director of Just Jobs at … Continue reading →