Browse by: "2022"

The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the long-standing skills shortages in the health workforce across countries. Equipping health workers with the right skills is essential to respond to future health crises, to prepare for increasing use of digital technologies, and to plan for demographic change. This joint report by the OECD and ILO aims to enable more resilient health workforces by helping countries to assess future demand in terms of both numbers of health workers and skills needs, and to prepare appropriate policy responses. The report provides a comparative overview of practices in 16 countries to anticipate future skill needs in the health workforce, and of how such information is used by policy makers and social partners to foster a better alignment with labour market needs. Analysis is based on interviews with institutions that are responsible for anticipating skill needs in the health workforce, a virtual peer-learning workshop and desk research.

The Dominican Republic has made strides on many socioeconomic fronts over the years. The country has been one of the leading economies in Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of GDP growth, reaching upper middle-income status in 2011. However, progress on the different dimensions of well-being has been insufficient. In particular, socioeconomic and territorial disparities are still important, and public institutions remain insufficiently solid. For the Dominican Republic to embark on a more prosperous development path, three critical dimensions must be tackled. First, providing quality jobs for all, with particular emphasis on boosting formalisation and productive transformation. Second, mobilising more public and private finance for development, with more progressive and effective taxation systems, more efficient public expenditure and deeper capital markets. Third, accelerating digital transformation to boost productivity, enhance inclusion and support job creation.

In Hungary, women are much less likely than men to be in paid work. Despite recent policy reforms and employment increases for both men and women since the global financial crisis, the gender employment gap has widened over the past years. It is now at its highest point since the mid-1990s. A major reason for the persistent employment gap in Hungary is that most mothers with very young children take an extended period out of paid work following childbirth - often until the child is two or three years of age. Traditional family attitudes towards gender roles and caring for very young children play a role. In addition, access to and use of childcare services for very young children remains limited despite some improvements, and flexible working arrangements are not widespread. For Hungary, closing the gender employment gap responds to both gender equality and labour market issues. This report analyses recent reforms and explores potential policy actions in the areas of early childhood education and care, parental leave and flexible working arrangements, which could provide women - and especially mothers of very young children - with better access to paid work.

The effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (with its dramatic impact on energy and food prices), the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic, and extreme weather events in some parts of the world in 2022 are expected to reverberate into 2023. International implications for education and training include economic uncertainty and tight labour markets, ongoing digital transformation, and continued growth and influence of mass information. These trends challenge education policymakers to transform existing pathways in their countries and economies, so people can become effective lifelong learners to navigate change. Building on the OECD’s Framework of Responsiveness and Resilience in Education Policy, as well as analysis of international policies and practices from over 40 education systems implemented mainly since 2020, this report identifies three areas of policy effort that education policymakers can undertake in 2023: 1) enhancing the relevance of learning pathways; 2) easing transitions throughout learners’ pathways; and 3) nurturing learners’ aspirations. Lessons emerging from recent policy efforts are synthesised into key policy pointers for 2023. The report has been prepared with evidence from the Education Policy Outlook series—the OECD’s analytical observatory of education policy.

As countries seek to learn from the COVID-19 crisis and increase their resilience for the future, evaluations are important tools to understand what worked or not, why and for whom. This report is the first of its kind. It evaluates Luxembourg’s responses to the COVID-19 crisis in terms of risk preparedness, crisis management, as well as public health, education, economic and fiscal, and social and labour market policies. While Luxembourg’s response to the pandemic has been particularly agile, preserving the country’s resilience will require maintaining high levels of trust in government, reducing inequalities, and laying the foundations for inclusive growth. The findings and recommendations of this report will provide guidance to public authorities in these efforts.

This report presents the most recent trends in the labour market demand for digital professionals and skills, highlighting where bottlenecks are emerging and policy action is – and will be – needed to support individuals who aim to thrive in the digital transition. The report analyses a wide range of digital occupations and the associated skill and technology demands using a unique set of data collected from millions of job postings published online in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore and Spain. The evidence contained in this report is key for governments to design targeted retraining and upskilling policies, and for workers to fully benefit from the digital transition.

This review contributes to a better understanding of the gender wage gap in Germany and puts forward key elements of a policy package to reduce gender pay gaps. It provides a detailed analysis of the role of firms in the gender wage gap by focusing on the pay gap between similarly skilled men and women between and within firms. The within-firm component captures differences in pay between men and women within firms related to differences in tasks and responsibilities, or differences in pay for work of equal value (e.g. bargaining, discrimination). The between-firm component captures the role of differences in pay between firms (unrelated to workforce composition) due to the tendency of women to work in low-wage firms. The review analyses gender differences in job mobility and the earnings consequences of career breaks following childbirth to shed light on the evolution of the gender wage gap across the working life. To put results for Germany in context, they are systematically benchmarked to those of four nearby countries (i.e. Denmark, France, the Netherlands and Sweden). The policy discussion extends the empirical analysis by putting forward a comprehensive policy package with an emphasis on policies targeted at firms.

One in seven working-age adults identifies as having a disability in OECD countries, a share that is also substantial and growing among young people (8% in 2019). Many of them are excluded from meaningful work and have low levels of income and social engagement. This report documents the current labour market situation of people with disability, who continue to face large employment, unemployment and poverty gaps compared with people without disability. The report concludes that the goal set up some twenty years ago of making disability policies pro-active and employment-oriented has not been achieved. In particular, key areas of disability policy have received too little attention so far, such as policies to support young people with disability, improve the skills of people with disability, and intervene early in the course of a health problem or disability. The report calls for rigorous disability mainstreaming in all relevant policies and practices as the missing link to better labour market inclusion.

Alors que les pays cherchent à tirer les leçons de la crise du COVID-19 et accroître leur résilience pour l’avenir, les évaluations constituent des outils précieux en ce qu’elles permettent de comprendre ce qui a fonctionné ou pas, pour quoi et pour qui. Ce rapport, premier de son genre, évalue les réponses du Luxembourg à la crise du COVID-19 en matière de préparation aux risques, de gestion de la crise, et de politiques de santé publique, d’éducation, économiques et budgétaires, sociales et de marché du travail. Si la réponse des pouvoirs publics luxembourgeois à la pandémie a été particulièrement agile, préserver la résilience du pays passera par le maintien d’une confiance élevée dans le gouvernement, la baisse des inégalités, et la mise en place d’une croissance inclusive. Les conclusions et recommandations de ce rapport guideront les pouvoirs publics dans ces efforts.

In the context of a rapidly changing world of work, the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened pre-existing challenges to Japan’s adult learning system and raised new ones. This report examines how skill requirements have been evolving in Japan prior to and during the COVID-19 crisis. It examines changes in the skills composition of Japan’s workforce as well as policy efforts to improve the accessibility of career guidance, broaden training participation and foster the adoption of teleworking practices. The report also provides concrete recommendations to tackle inequalities in skills and training among socio-demographic groups. Finally, it provides suggestions for how to develop a labour market information system to feed real-time data into crucial policy and decision-making processes.

This review provides policy recommendations on how to improve the Korean pension system, building on the OECD’s best practices in pension design. It details the key features of the Korean pension system and identifies its strengths and weaknesses based on cross-country comparisons. The Korean pension system consists of a mandatory pay-as-you-go public scheme, occupational schemes and voluntary individual schemes. The review also covers the first layer of old-age social protection in Korea. This review is the eighth in the series of OECD Reviews of Pension Systems.

Two years into the pandemic, economic activity has recovered faster than expected. However, the labour market recovery is still uneven across sectors and is threatened by the economic fallout from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which has generated the fastest growing humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II, sending shockwaves throughout the world economy. The 2022 edition of the OECD Employment Outlook reviews the key labour market and social challenges for a more inclusive post-COVID‑19 recovery. It also examines the policies to address these challenges and the outlook ahead. Particular attention is given to frontline workers and groups lagging behind in this recovery (young people, workers with less education, and racial/ethnic minorities). The Outlook also addresses a number of long-standing structural issues that have a key relevance for labour market inclusiveness, such as employer market power and its labour market consequences, the role of firms in wage inequality, and the effect of working time policies on well-being and economic outcomes.

Deux ans après le début de la pandémie, l’activité économique s’est redressée plus vite que prévu. Toutefois, la reprise du marché du travail reste inégale entre les secteurs. Elle est de surcroît menacée par les retombées économiques de l’agression de la Russie contre l’Ukraine, qui entraîne la crise humanitaire la plus grave en Europe depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale, provoquant des ondes de choc dans toute l’économie à l’échelle internationale. L’édition 2022 des Perspectives de l’emploi de l'OCDE examine les principaux défis à relever sur le marché du travail et sur le plan social pour favoriser une reprise post-COVID-19 plus inclusive. Elle analyse également les mesures à prendre pour s’attaquer à ces problématiques, ainsi que les perspectives qui se dessinent. Une attention toute particulière est portée aux travailleurs de première ligne ainsi qu’aux groupes qui profitent moins de la reprise, à savoir les jeunes, les travailleurs moins qualifiés et les minorités raciales/ethniques. Cette édition des Perspectives de l’emploi étudie en outre plusieurs enjeux structurels qui présentent un intérêt majeur pour l’inclusivité du marché du travail, comme le pouvoir des employeurs sur le marché du travail, le rôle des entreprises dans les inégalités salariales, et les retombées des règlementations du temps de travail sur le bien-être et les performances économiques.

In 2017, Colombia launched a novel public policy to stimulate the creative economy, building on the success of previous policy initiatives to support the cultural and creative sectors. The Orange Economy policy is unique for its transversal approach to supporting the creative economy and mainstreaming culture across diverse policy portfolios, beyond cultural policy. The report provides a comparative overview of Colombia’s culture and creative sectors relative to OECD peers and reviews progress in policy implementation. It provides a specific focus on Colombia’s push to foster creative districts as tool for local development across the country, including policy examples based on nine districts across the globe. The report maps the financial ecosystem for the creative economy in Colombia. Recommendations draw on international good practice to suggest ways Colombia can best leverage creative economy opportunities.

Nach einer langen Phase des Beschäftigungswachstums, die zur niedrigsten Arbeitslosenquote seit der deutschen Wiedervereinigung führte, wird der Berliner Arbeitsmarkt nun zunehmend angespannter. Beschleunigt durch die COVID-19-Pandemie stellen globale Megatrends wie die Automatisierung von Produktionsprozessen und die immer weiter fortgeschrittenen digitalen Kompetenzen, die für viele Jobs erforderlich sind, die Berliner Politik vor neue Herausforderungen. Das lokale Weiterbildungssystem nimmt dabei eine zentrale Rolle ein: Es soll die Berliner Bevölkerung auf den sich wandelnden Arbeitsmarkt vorbereiten. Der Bericht „Zukunftssichere Weiterbildung in Berlin, Deutschland“ analysiert die Weiterbildung in Berlin im Detail und arbeitet Stärken und Engpässe des lokalen Weiterbildungssystems heraus. Der Bericht betont die Notwendigkeit einer langfristigen Vision für die Weiterbildung in Berlin, welche die verschiedenen Akteure der Weiterbildungslandschaft zusammenbringt um Angebote dynamisch an die Bedürfnisse der Berliner Bevölkerung anzupassen.

This report on Lithuania is the tenth country study published in a series of reports looking into how policies connect people with jobs. This report is produced in the framework of a project of the OECD with the European Commission which aims to raise the quality of the data collected and their use in the evaluation of the effectiveness of active labour market policies (ALMPs). The report uses rich administrative data from different registers in Lithuania to evaluate the impact of two types of ALMPs: employment subsidies and vocational training for unemployed people. The analysis examines the outcomes of the selected ALMPs beyond just the probability of employment and how different population groups are affected. Finally, the report makes recommendations for improving the effectiveness of Lithuania’s ALMPs and strengthening the capacity of the Lithuanian authorities in conducting ALMP impact evaluations.