institute for employment studies

public policy research

Public employment policy research at IES

The Institute aims to improve employment policy in the UK and internationally by carrying out authoritative research of practical relevance to policy makers and those responsible for implementing policy programmes and initiatives. Our work covers all aspects of employment policy and labour market activity and is mainly organised around four main themes:

• unemployment and labour market disadvantage
• education, training and careers
• workplace performance and skills
• work, health and well-being.

In addition, some of our work covers generic labour market research issues outside any one of the main programme themes.

We also work internationally, for policy agencies and institutions in Europe, America and Asia, often in partnership with other research institutes around the world.

We employ a range of social research methods to meet our clients’ requirements, in every case combining high standards of methodological rigour with a determination to produce relevant and timely findings of practical value.

Our researchers come from a variety of backgrounds and bring together the disciplines of economics, psychology, geography, sociology and other social sciences to answer research questions

The nature of our research varies with the subject matter and the client’s requirements, but most research assignments include one or more of the following aspects:

• investigation/diagnosis: eg identifying the causes of local, regional or national labour market failure, or other employment problems
• description and analysis: eg identifying key trends and labour market developments, or auditing the provision of employment services, identifying the demand for or supply of skills
• evaluation: assessing the effectiveness or impact of a policy intervention or programme and identifying what works, how and why.

We are committed to the publication and dissemination of our research findings through reports, summaries, articles and presentations.

• IES public policy publications
• IES public policy briefings