OECD Employment Outlook 2019
The Future of Work
The 2019 edition of the OECD Employment Outlook presents new evidence on changes in job stability, underemployment and the share of well-paid jobs, and discusses the policy implications of these changes with respect to how technology, globalisation, population ageing, and other megatrends are transforming the labour market in OECD countries. The report discusses how labour market regulation might be used to extend rights and protections beyond standard employees, as well as to rebalance bargaining power between employers and workers. It analyses how collective bargaining and social dialogue can be mobilised to address emerging challenges in the labour market, looking at the role of government, social partners and new forms of collective organisation. The role of adult learning is also addressed, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable groups. And finally the report also assesses challenges for social protection policies, presenting evidence on the support gaps affecting different types of worker, and discussing reform avenues for preserving and strengthening the key stabilising role of social protection systems.
Left on your own? Social protection when labour markets are in flux
This chapter assesses challenges for social protection policies in a changing world of work and presents evidence of support gaps in public policies affecting different types of workers. Key policy challenges include a greater need for support resulting from greater employment instability or lower earnings among some groups; a reduced accessibility or adequacy of social protection measures that were designed around stable forms of dependent employment; and sustainability challenges, e.g. due to opportunities for avoiding participation in risk‑sharing provisions. Accessing adequate support can be especially difficult for workers in less secure forms of employment. But support gaps are small in some countries that adopt fairly different social protection strategies, suggesting that accessible support can be achieved with different blends of social insurance and means‑tested assistance. The chapter discusses alternative reform avenues and illustrates country approaches to prepare income support and reintegration measures for the future of work.
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