What is the significance of regulations of job contracts and wages when it comes to young people's access to labour market? This is an issue that has attracted and continues to attract a great deal of interest in both research and politics. Proposals for deregulated employment protection and reduced entry-level pay recur regularly in public…

Public debate on the future of work and of education and training has been raging across Europe. Globalisation, digitisation, migration, demographics and the greening economy are the challenges fuelling discussions. Unemployment, underemployment, mismatches between people's skills and available jobs, and flat or falling incomes have been…

Australia entered the COVID-19 pandemic with a youth (15 to 24-year-old) unemployment rate of 11.6% in December 2019, three times higher than the 25 to 64-year-old unemployment rate of 3.6%. The strategies taken by governments to minimise the spread of COVID-19 have had widespread economic impacts. By July 2020, youth unemployment had risen to…

This report explores best practice in the design and delivery of pre-apprenticeship programmes across Europe. For the purposes of this project, pre-apprenticeship programmes are defined as programmes targeted at young people aged 16-24, where at least one of the stated aims is progression to an apprenticeship. Across Europe, some programmes are…

The first part of this report examines the relationship of technological change to employment and work. After a brief introduction, chapter 1 discusses new technology and labor productivity versus employment, emphasizing the effects of labor-saving machinery and changes in specific sectors of employment, such as electrical machinery,…

Six observers studied both school-to-work transition programs for youth and retraining programs for adult workers in three Western European countries--West Germany, Sweden, and England. They identified European solutions to a pressing problem in the United States: youth and adult workers whose skills are inadequate for today's and tomorrow's jobs.…

The economic upswing in Central and Eastern Europe can be achieved only with a skilled work force. In view of the traditional exemplary reputation of its dual system of vocational training, attention is being directed toward Germany. The dual system differs from that of other countries in that not only the state determines which qualifications may…

A 2-day regional seminar was held to raise awareness of the problem of youth unemployment in Southeastern Europe and assist countries in the region to develop their own framework of action and concrete projects. The following were among the topics discussed: ways policymakers can help young people find valid employment opportunities within…