Retaining talent of all ages has become one of the most important issues facing employers today. How are people 55 to 64 faring in today’s labour market and how can we build an effective, multi-generational workforce? The OECD’s Shruti Singh and AARP’s Lona Choi-Allum explore what needs to be done to ensure that everyone's talents and skills are put to best use.
The social economy can help boost prospects for women… and men. One of the big problems in tackling gender equality is breaking down gender stereotypes that drive women into what have often been called “pink collar jobs”. These are jobs like childcare, education, personal and household services, plus social work. Nitya Nangalia from SEWA Bharat and Natalie Laechelt from the OECD unpack the role of the social economy in the quest to move beyond pink collar jobs.
Kim Kardashian has been apprenticing with two lawyers for the past few years to become a lawyer herself in California. Apprenticeships like Kardashian’s “reading law” and vocational education training are career pathways that not enough young people are considering when deciding on what to do after high school. And maybe they’re not thinking about what happens after graduation because schools aren’t getting them “career ready” enough. New analysis of national longitudinal datasets and 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data show that it’s good for job markets and young people’s life outcomes when students start thinking about their future early on. Specifically, students whose schools organised first-hand encounters with people from the work world can expect to experience less unemployment and a greater likelihood of better-paying and fulfilling careers. Anthony Mann, senior policy analyst in the OECD’s Education and Skills directorate, talks to us about career readiness, apprenticeships and vocational educational training.
The OECD, in partnership with IBM, recently conducted a social media poll, asking young people about how well prepared they feel to join the world of work, how confident they are about their future paths and what concerns them about education and jobs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, the OECD’s Anthony Mann and IBM’s Lydia Logan discuss insights from the poll and why career guidance and real-world work experiences are more important for young people than ever.
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Covid-19 has upended the jobs market. More than ever, people need to retrain to adapt to the change and loss in jobs. Governments and businesses require data to pinpoint what kinds of jobs the economy needs and what skills are missing, and then invest. Jacques van den Broek is the CEO and executive chair of the Executive Board of Randstad, a global leader in Human Resources services.
The transition from school to the world of work is one of the most pivotal moments in a young person’s life – it’s a time of high pressure and high uncertainty, and one that requires an equally high level of resilience to manage. Enter the coronavirus crisis, and suddenly this difficult transition gains a brand new set of complications. To discuss the current situation for school-leavers entering the job market, we caught up with Ingrid Schoon, Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at the Institute of Education, University College London, and Anthony Mann, Senior Analyst at the OECD.
Depuis le début de l'année 2020, la pandémie de coronavirus s'est répandue comme une traînée de poudre, fauchant des centaines de milliers de vies. Elle a fait des ravages en termes de santé, de bien-être et d’emplois. Elle a provoqué la récession la plus grave jamais observée depuis près d'un siècle. Quelles sont les perspectives économiques ? La reprise peut-elle être rapide ? Que peuvent faire les pouvoir publics ? Décryptage d’une situation inédite avec Laurence Boone, Cheffe économiste de l’OCDE.
In early 2020, the employment rate in OECD countries hit a new record high, after the decade-long recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. Then the coronavirus pandemic hit, with millions of people unable to go to work, an exceptionally stark drop in economic activity and unprecedented job losses. What needs to be done to get firms back in business and people back to work?
The Covid-19 pandemic has shocked our world. Our healthcare systems are under intense pressure, and the economy is suffering badly too, with stalling trade and investment, and massive job losses adding to human suffering. We talk to Frederic Jenny, Professor of Economics at ESSEC Business School in Paris and chair of the OECD Competition Committee. Why have our economies been so badly affected by the coronavirus crisis? What questions does the crisis raise about globalisation, and about markets? Can competition policy help? How can governments be better prepared in future?
Technology can be scary - are our digital assistants spying on us? Will robots steal our jobs? Change is challenging, says Sodexo's Belen Moscoso del Prado, but technology itself isn't to blame. How we use technology is what matters - and it can be positive force for people and companies alike. She explains how Sodexo - like many firms today - is adapting to the digital transformation and what this has meant for the company, its employees and clients.
We hold many assumptions about our workplaces and about what makes a good job, ones that often leave out women’s perspectives. Dr. Sally Roever of Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing, known as WIEGO, explains how social dialogue can broaden our understanding of work, unpack our assumptions about labour, and better working conditions for women around the world.
Pour les jeunes qui construisent leurs projets éducatifs et professionnels, « un réseau , c’est le nerf de la guerre » , affirme Mélanie Taravant. Elle est journaliste, présentatrice de l’émission C à dire sur la chaîne France 5 et fondatrice de Viensvoirmontaf, une association qui permet à des élèves de zone d’éducation prioritaire – qui manquent souvent de réseau – de trouver des stages de 3ème et de découvrir l’incroyable diversité des métiers qui existent dans le monde. Une étape indispensable pour imaginer leur parcours, sans autocensure.
New technologies such as automation and AI are rapidly reshaping our economies and our work. For Stefano Scarpetta, head of the directorate for employment, labour and social affairs at the OECD, these changes aren’t likely to lead to massive, technologically driven unemployment, but rather can bring opportunities if the right policies and support are in place. In order to build an inclusive future of work, governments – together with employers, trade unions and civil society – need to act now. Because if we wait to see exactly how technologies are changing our economies, we’ll always be too late.
Trade unions have been out of fashion in the past couple of decades. In 1985, 45% of workers were protected by collective agreements. In 2016, this number fell to 32%. While economies have more or less gone back to pre-crisis levels and unemployment is spectacularly low, wages remain stuck. Are we witnessing trade union revivalism now? Paul Nowak, UK Deputy General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, give us his take.
When it comes to the jobs of the future, you can’t squeeze people out of the equation, says Ben Pring. An optimist, he believes that what makes us human, our soft skills, will be more valuable than ever. And as machines take on more dirty, dangerous or simply dull tasks, people will be able to do work that is more interesting, engaging and meaningful. Ben Pring is co-founder and leader of the Cognizant Center for the Future of Work and author of What To Do When Machines Do Everything.
Teachers’ own learning is an integral part of their practice – after all, it is said that to teach is to learn twice over. But understanding which kinds of in-service training are effective for teachers and which aren’t can be complex, and many countries have yet to find the perfect formula. Data can provide some guidance. Edmund Mission, Deputy CEO of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), and Pablo Fraser, an analyst for the OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), discuss the importance of professional development for teachers and the direction systems should be heading in to get the most out of their professional development programmes.
We need more women to work, to be paid the same as men, and to hold powerful positions. This is not just a matter of fairness but of plain economics. The OECD estimates that halving the gender gap in the work force by 2030 would boost GDP by about 6%.
Dame Helena Morrissey is the founder of the UK-based 30% Club. Its goal? To reach a minimum of 3 out of 10 women on boards and in senior management. And this is just the thin edge of the diversity wedge. Ms Morrissey believes the power base should also be more inclusive of different ethnicities and sexual identities. Helena Morrissey is the current head of personal investing at Legal & General.
Encouraging women and girls to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) is one thing, getting them to patent their innovations and take them from lab to market is another. Fiona Murray is the Associate Dean of Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Co-Director of MIT’s Initiative for Innovation. She talks about women getting in the CEO seat and revving up the innovation engine.
The days when people held a full-time job for most of their lives and accordingly received benefits are over. Nowadays, many of us are temps, self-employed, and artists. We work part-time, pick up gig work, take on zero-hour contracts. How do we reconcile social security like pensions, unemployment benefits, and medical insurance with these more fluid forms of work? We discuss this and ideas like Universal Basic Income with Monika Queisser, Head of Social Policy at the OECD.
Women’s pay has been catching up to men’s since 1968 but women still earn 49 cents to every dollar men make. And that’s been true for the past 15 years.
How can women achieve equal pay for equal value? Zara Nanu, the co-founder and CEO of Gapsquare, is counting on algorithms.