Publications

Young people are far more likely than other groups to be employed in non standard and insecure jobs, independently from their education and skills. Recent changes in the macroeconomic context; the ongoing economic crisis, as well as labour market reforms enhancing flexibility have increased the uncertainty in the labour market for young people, as indicated by the increase in youth unemployment, inactivity and precarious jobs. This project, funded as a pilot project by the European Commission and completed in 2011, provided a detailed examination of the labour market condition of young people with tertiary-level qualifications (ISCED level equal to or greater than 5), who had experienced deskilling and unemployment in recent years. In order to better understand how and to what extent young highly skilled workers in Europe were experiencing job insecurity, the project provided an overview on the European labour market conditions, with a specific focus on Spain, Italy and the UK.

This report gives an overview of the main challenges and considerations for European actors, stakeholders and policymakers in relation to enterprise restructuring, including how this can be carried out in a way that mitigates possible negative consequences for the workforce and the environment in which enterprises operate. It also contains lessons learned from practice around the EU.

Consensus forecasts were pointing to slowing growth in the EU during 2012, with some at least indicating a return to recession. Sovereign debt issues in a growing number of Member States – the response to them and anxieties regarding their eventual resolution – were one important contributing factor. The decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) to make available nearly 500 billion euros to the banking system in December 2011 appeared to have bought some time to develop a more lasting solution. However, downgrades of sovereign debt in nine Member States by rating agency Standard & Poor once again underlined the fragility of the common currency. General sentiment remained volatile amid fears of a new second phase of the Great Recession of 2008–9...

The economic situation continued to be dominated by sovereign debt problems in the eurozone countries. As these continued to remain unresolved, general sentiment had turned negative amid fears of a new second phase of the Great Recession of 2008–9. Growth outlooks in the developed economies had recently been scaled back with below trend growth forecast for 2011–12. Austerity programmes, which had begun to negatively impact public employment, especially in local and central government administrations, had not thus far been accompanied by the hoped-for handover from public to private demand. Within the EU, there were a number of different labour market stories reflecting very different trajectories during and after the 2008–9 crisis. Unemployment in Spain and Ireland continued to rise while other countries severely affected by the crisis – notably the Baltic states – showed signs of a strong recovery. The German unemployment rate was at its lowest level in nearly twenty years (6%) despite a recent easing of growth while the UK unemployment rates were at an eighteen-year high (8.1%). Meanwhile in Greece unemployment had risen by 4 percentage points in the last twelve months.

This paper explores the relationship between productivity growth and wage growth and its importance for employment outcomes, drawing on two main sources: a review of the economic literature and an analysis of international data.

This report was produced for the GEO by the Institute for Employment Studies and aimed to understand transparency on gender pay gaps and workforce diversity in organisations with between 150 and 249 employees. It investigated both the propensity of organisations of this size to be open about pay and diversity in their organisation and what they do analyse and report on.

The study provides an invaluable resource to inform policy in this area covering business start-up, support for unemployed people to become self-employed, enterprise education, and business growth. This small scale, explorative research study looks at the hitherto relatively under-researched question of the role of skills and training in the development of self-employment. It draws on a literature review, data analysis from the Labour Force Survey, and a series of expert interviews.

The EU economy continued to grow over the last quarter with more positive data in particular from core economies. Problems of sovereign debt management however persisted in several eurozone Member States and negative economic news from other developed economies tended to more than mitigate any positive momentum arising from the dynamism of the emerging market economies.

This report looks at the role that social dialogue and local networks play in addressing the negative consequences of the crisis, particularly job losses, and especially how they can be used to help to maintain employment and develop job creation. It looks at established networks and also determines whether any new networks have been created to help manage the consequences of the crisis.

In this edition of the ERM quarterly, we describe some positive recent developments in the IT sector where looming skill shortages were more of a concern than unemployment. We also showcase a potentially interesting industrial restructuring project at the old Fiat plant at Termini Imerese in Sicily.