labour market

Canada / The truth about job creation and unemployment

While Canada’s record in raw job creation is not bad (in our calculations, 2nd in the G-7 and 10th in the OECD), job creation alone is a misleading measure of the overall health of Canada’s job market Continue reading →

Australia / Labour market continues to weaken

The summary ABS Labour Force (seasonally adjusted) estimates for July 2013 are: Employment decreased 10,200 (0.1 per cent) with full-time employment falling by 6,700 and part-time employment falling by 3,500. Unemployment decreased by 5,700 (0.8 per cent) to 705,400 but only because the labour force shrank on the back of a declining participation rate The … Continue reading →

Germany / A call for An United European Labor Market

German Labor Minister Ursula von der Leyen said she’ll push to create a Europe-wide labor market with common training, mutually recognized qualifications and language classes Continue reading →

China / What’s going on in its labor markets

Understanding unemployment and wage growth are crucial for understanding developments in the world’s second largest economy, not to mention the future price of everything from Nike sneakers to Apple iPhones. The official data is improving, with new information on migrant worker and private sector wages. But it remains scarce and in some cases unreliable, especially … Continue reading →

Flexiblility / Anxious workers and declining living standards

As the Bank of England’s chief economist Spencer Dale put it in a speech on Wednesday, shortly after the jobs figures were published, “the harsh but inescapable reality,” is that, “households and families in our economy are worse off. Much worse off.” He highlights the “extraordinary flexibility” of wages. Once adjusted for inflation, pay is … Continue reading →

Latin America: Tremendous social progress – World Bank

Latin America witnessed tremendous social progress during the last decade writes the World Bank in its report The Labor Market Story Behind Latin America’s Transformation (Adapted choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor to follow). Inequality of (labor and non-labor) income fell substantially, by 5 Gini points on average for 15 LAC countries, and the robust growth that the … Continue reading →

Internet Job Search / Cuts Unemployment Duration by 25%

“While the Internet has been found to reduce trading frictions in a number of other markets, existing research has failed to detect such an effect in the labor market” write Peter Kuhn and Hani Mansour in Is Internet Job Search Still Ineffective? on iza.org.(Adapted Choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor to follow) No more… In their … Continue reading →

Canada – Labour Market – Not bad, but could be better says Parliamentary Budget Office

The labour market has fared better in Canada than in many other rich countries, it has fared better than it has in past recessions, but it has not fared as well as it could. This is the major message from a recently released report by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), which offers a valuable description … Continue reading →

Older Workers / Unemployment Duration / US : Chances of finding another job are low

“After reaching record highs month after month, the typical length of time a jobless worker in the United States has been unemployed finally fell in April’ 2011, to “only” 38.3 weeks. But the outlook is looking bleaker for the nation’s older workers.” wrote Catherine Rampell in Older Workers Without Jobs Face Longest Time Out of … Continue reading →

Partnership – OECD: Getting the young into jobs (video)

Job Gap – Youth Unemploment: An Interview with ILO Economist Sara Elder (video)

An Interview with ILO Economist Sara Elder

Youth Unemployment – UK – Are vocational qualifications a better option than university ?

“In this economic climate, with such high rates of graduate unemployment, should school leavers give far greater consideration to vocational qualifications?” asks Jane Scott Paul in Are vocational qualifications a better option than university? on guardian.co.uk. “Sadly though, youth unemployment is hardly limited to unqualified school leavers: it now extends to many of Britain’s brightest … Continue reading →

India – Education: A necessary but not a sufficient basis for social mobility

“ Has wider access to education increased social mobility in India? writes Hasan Suroor in Education is a necessary but not a sufficient basis for social mobility on thehindu.com. She interviews Oxford academic Craig Jeffrey, ‘a fellow and tutor in Geography at St. John’s College, who speaks fluent Hindi and Urdu’ and  ‘who spent several … Continue reading →

Canada – Why the labour market is already back to normal

The Labour Force Survey release for August was typical of LFS releases since the recession ended three years ago: modestly good news, but not enough to put a serious dent in the unemployment rate. When will things get back to normal? The answer is “things are already back to normal.” Canadian unemployment rates simply don’t … Continue reading →

Europe Weak Job Market – Manpower profit slumps

Global staffing services provider ManpowerGroup (MAN.N) on Friday reported sharply lower quarterly profit that beat Wall Street expectations as Europe’s major economies weakened and a stronger dollar reduced results. Net earnings fell 44 percent to $41 million, or 51 cents per share, from $72.7 million, or 87 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding one-time … Continue reading →