NEUJOBS Conference in Rome: job polarisation and labour market reforms

I am using Coen van Henten’ s (OSE) notes to summarise the most interesting messages from the first NEUJOBS regional event held last week in Rome in a splendid venue at LUISS University (pictures and some of the slides here).

Several contributions in the morning focused on job polarisation. My paper documented that in 17 out of 27 EU countries, labour demand in the 2000-2010 decade was stronger for low and high qualified professions and much weaker, if not negative, for the medium skilled ones. Combined with educational expansion this may cause serious vertical mismatch in the next decade. Giuseppe Ragusa, from the LUISS Guido Carli University Rome, made an interesting contribution by arguing that the shift from a production to a service economy can partly be explained by the increase of incomes at the top (consumption spillovers). Continue reading

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NEUJOBS Publication: Micro-Level Labour Demand Estimation for Germany

This NEUJOBS working paper by Andreas Lichter, Andreas Peichl and Sebastian Siegloch reviews studies on German labour demand over the past 20 years, and provides new evidence that estimates short- and long-run labour demand in Germany. Results show that short-run labour demand is rather persistent, and that negative effects of wage rate increases on labour demand are smaller in the short- than in the long-run. In both the short- and the long-run, own-wage elasticity for unskilled labour demand is higher than for medium and high skilled labour, which leads the authors to conclude that firms adjust their share of unskilled labour more heavily in the event of wage rate increases.

Download the full report to read more.

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NEUJOBS state of the art: Reconciling Work and Welfare in Europe

This NEUJOBS state of the art report is a response to the RECWOWE project (Reconciling work and welfare in Europe), and aims to summarize the findings of RECWOWE. RECWOWE is a network of excellence of the 6th framework programme. The state of the art is a crucial publication for all welfare and labour policy experts and analysts. The report put forward by Moira Nelson is divided in two parts: part one explores why new welfare state policies are necessary and what sets of policies are most suited within the present socio-economic context; part two reviews which policy reforms have indeed taken place and specifies the theories put forward to explain these changes.

For more information, see the NEUJOBS website and the full report.

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Workshop on ‘Welfare, Labour Market and Education: How to address the Socio-ecological Transition in Italy?’

This workshop represents the first NEUJOBS event involving national stakeholders. It will take place on 4 May 2012, at the LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome. It is an opportunity for European scholars and national (and European) stakeholders to meet and debate key issues for tackling labour market transitions. Leading scholars from NEUJOBS will explain their understanding of present and future challenges to European labour markets, focusing specifically on the case of Italy. Work/life balance and skills formation are the two themes to debate. Their analyis allows to focus on two social groups: women and younger generations.

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NEUJOBS response to Mario Draghi’s interview

I copy below a comment that NEUJOBS experts on welfare state issues, Verena Dräbing, Anton Hemerijck and Moira Nelson, wrote in response to Mario Draghi’s comment on the (non) future of European welfare states.

“In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal on February 22, Mario Draghi talks about the need for wide-reaching reform, noting that “the European social model has already gone when we see youth unemployment rates prevailing in some countries”. In his view, fiscal consolidation through lower taxes and expenditures remains, despite contradictory short term effects, the only path to renewed economic competitiveness. Continue reading

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ECB president declares European social model as ‘dead’

In a recent interview in the Wall Street Journal, the Presdient of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, said: ‘The European social model is already gone’.

Please follow this Link to read the interview.

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A Plan for Growth in Europe

The 20th February, 12 heads of government of EU members sent a letter to the President of the Council and the President of the Commission to stress Europe needs a new strategy for growth.

For the 12 members EU needs a renewed action for growth based on eight points mainly concentrated on the deepening of the internal market and the extension of its external side.

The seventh, which is of particular interest for us, suggests that the EU Members States must be, “acting nationally and, respecting national competences, collectively to promote well functioning labour markets which deliver employment opportunities and, crucially, promote higher levels of labour market participation among young people, women and older workers [...] We should foster labour mobility to create a more integrated and open European labour market, for example by advancing the acquisition and preservation of supplementary pension rights for migrating workers, while respecting the role of the social partners. We should also take further action to reduce the number of regulated professions in Europe, through the introduction of a tough new proportionality test set out in legislation. In this context, we ask the Commission to convene without delay a new forum for the mutual evaluation of national practices to help identify and bring down unjustified regulatory barriers, examine alternatives to regulation which ensure high professional standards and assess the scope for further alignment of standards to facilitate mutual recognition of professional qualifications”.

Please view this PDF for the entire letter.

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For those who missed the lunchtime meeting on the 23rd of February

For those who missed the NEUJOBS lunchtime meeting for stakeholders, here is a brief summary of Prof. Zagame’s presentation on the future of labour demand:

Long-known trends within the labour market will continue to operate also during the next decade, in particular:

  • Rising demand for skilled labour
  • Continued expansion of the service sector and decline of industry
  • Over all European labor force is estimated to fall by -7% within the next two decades due to ageing of the workforce.

Prof. Zagamé provided additional details for France, a pilot case study whose methodology will be extended to most EU countries during the course of 2012. Projections indicate that enormous job creation will be in the fields of services to enterprises and persons. Construction will be another important factor, although it is very elastic to the macroeconomic conditions. Job destruction will occur not only in the manufacturing sector but also in the public sector. More specifically, public administrations are expected to be downsized although on the other hand additional workers will be required in the fields of education and healthcare.

Click here to download the full report. More detailed results will be published by the end of 2012.

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The ILO at a EESC conference in preparation for Rio +20

On 7 and 8 February 2012, the EESC conference in preparation of Rio+20 took place in Brussels. At the panel on “Sustainable development- fighting poverty and ensuring social justice”, ILO Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Susanne Hoffmann presented the ILO position for Rio+20. She stressed the need for a just transition to a green economy that includes the creation of decent green jobs and social protection. The conclusions of the conference are available online.

ILO Newsletter: http://www.ilo.org/brussels/information-resources/newsletters/WCMS_173090/lang–fr/index.htm

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Linking Future Economic Development to Jobs

Dear NEUJOBS fan,

We would like to invite you to attend a NEUJOBS stakeholders’ lunch time meeting. The objective is to discuss a report that examines early findings of NEMESIS, an economic model. We hope you will help us to refine the scenarios by highlighting what will matter for the future of labour demand in Europe: which skills, which sectors, which occupations.

Please, see below more information. You can register for free through CEPS website: http://www.ceps.be/event/linking-future-economic-development-jobs.

We hope to see you all on the 23rd February at CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies), Place du Congrès 1, Bruxelles.

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