Ministers responsible for employment from around the world gather at the OECD on 28-29 September to discuss the jobs crisis. In our eighth OECD Observer ministers' roundtable, we ask six representatives, from Canada (co-Chair), Italy (co-Chair), Sweden (vice-Chair), France, New Zealand, and Chile, which is a candidate for OECD accession: What new policy actions are you taking to improve the jobs situation in your country?

Unemployment is rising to unprecedented high levels. There are several good policies governments can deploy to tackle it, but there are risks to avoid too.

With the crisis and sharp rise in unemployment, you might think anyone with a job these days should consider themselves lucky. Well, that depends.

In most OECD countries, unemployment protection systems don't provide adequate social security during a severe economic crisis and periods of high and persisting unemployment. Not only that, benefits can even run out within much less than a year and often before unemployed workers can find new jobs. Also, income support in many countries barely ever covers more than half a worker's previous salary, and sometimes much less.

Thanks to prompt and significant government responses to the crisis, many economies are experiencing initial signs of recovery. However, there is still much uncertainty concerning what lies ahead and unemployment is still rising in many countries. The OECD unemployment rate reached a post-war high of 8.5% in July 2009, with an OECD estimated 15 million extra out of work since the start of the crisis. In contrast, unemployment across the OECD was at a 25-year low of 5.6% in 2007.

"Being unemployed is frustrating, demeaning and, at this point, frightening." Anyone who has any doubt about the devastating effects unemployment can have will learn a lot from statements such as this one, captured in a recent survey undertaken by the John. J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University in the US.

As G20 leaders and OECD employment ministers turn their focus to solving the unemployment crisis that has gripped the world economy, they should spare more than just a thought for the particular plight of developing countries. Global unemployment has increased sharply, by 39 million workers, to judge by ILO central projections for 2009. But particularly for developing countries, unemployment is just one dimension of the challenge. Developing countries are also characterised by large numbers of informal workers who have no social or legal protection, and extremely low pay. They, their families and the wider communities to which they belong are exposed to all sorts of health and safety risks too.

One of the most widely heard accusations against immigrants is that they take jobs from locals, usually-it's claimed-because they are willing to work for less. How true are such claims, and do immigrants really harm the job prospects of natives?

Jobs crisis or no, it's best to invest in education. As this year's edition of Education at a Glance shows, men and women who have university-level degrees earn far more over the course of a lifetime than those who don't. In fact, men with higher education in Italy and the US can earn over US$300,000 more than their counterparts who do not have a university degree. Rewards tend to be lower for women, with Korea and Spain the exceptions.

When the OECD was mandated to develop a Green Growth Strategy this June, ministers specifically referred to the "green jobs" that such a strategy would support. But what exactly are "green jobs"?

Respond to the needs of the newly unemployed while continuing to engage with people who are disadvantaged within the labour market: this is the major challenge facing employment ministers today.

The main victims of severe economic downturns tend to be workers and their families, so governments are rightly stepping in to help job losers weather the storm. But while the severity of the unfolding jobs crisis may require extraordinary policy responses, how can governments avoid the wrong ones?

To be useful in helping countries to move out of the crisis, it is necessary for the OECD to look at its own history as an organisation and draw the right lessons for the future.

The financial and economic crisis has already put millions of people out of work in the OECD area alone, and the unemployment figures are going to get far worse. What can governments do to ease the suffering? 

Where there's money, there's also time for relaxing.

Productivity had been plummeting in OECD economies for a few years before the advent of the financial crisis.

In times of crisis, people don't look just to their governments to help them out, they look to each other. Giving money and time to non-profit groups working in health, education, social services and the arts helps others while making those who contribute feel good about themselves.

“The Chinese government rightly advocates firm opposition to trade and investment protectionism, as emphatically stated by Premier Wen Jiabao on several occasions in the past few weeks. As it did a decade ago during the Asian crisis, China has set itself firmly against inward retrenchment in the face of economic downturn. We celebrate this commitment at OECD.

The OECD and IMF forecasts for 2009 suggest that for the first time since the 1930s GDP will fall in the industrialised economies that make up the OECD. Yet even these forecasts are based on relatively optimistic assumptions that the financial markets begin to stabilise in the months ahead and that there are not other major “shoes to drop” in terms of negative financial shocks.

The credit crunch could usher in a new paradigm of stewardship for pension fund trustees and the dawn of a more accountable capitalism.

The developing world needs millions of trained health workers immediately just to provide the most basic healthcare, yet doctors are leaving poor countries to go to richer ones.

The effect multinationals have on wages and working conditions can be positive, but there are conditions to bear in mind, not least for policymakers wishing to attract foreign direct investment.

While OECD countries compete to attract high-skilled immigrants, the 2008 International Migration Outlook finds that employers increasingly rely on immigrants for low-skilled work. Just a fifth on average of the low-educated workforce in 21 OECD countries in the report is foreign-born, whereas the EU25 average is 14.1%.

Long ago I gave up trying to break through the so-called “glass ceiling” that has kept women like me out of higher management. Instead I decided to create new enterprises in which management could be reinvented by women. On 8 March 2005, I launched a business incubator devoted exclusively to projects by female entrepreneurs.

Just how significant is international migration in the light of other globalisation developments? One obvious starting point for answering the question is to ask how many of the current world population of 6.7 billion people are international migrants, defined as persons living outside their country of birth.

The gloomy image that has for so long hung over the world’s largest continent may at last be lifting.
Conflict and disease remain a bane, and there are challenges in areas like governance and transport, but as we reported in our last issue (No 255, May 2006), the OECD Development Centre’s latest African Economic Outlook is upbeat about future economic growth there.

Striking a balance between going to work and raising children is not just a concern for families. Getting the balance wrong reduces birth rates, labour supply and gender equity, and can even harm child development. It puts the shape of society in the future in question.

Europeans, particularly women, generally work fewer hours than their US counterparts. How does this difference help explain the transatlantic gap in incomes?

You rightly point out that “the supply of medical staff reflects global movements of labour” (No 262, Databank, July 2007). But many of us might disagree with your upbeat headline: “Healthy immigration”. In a report published in 2005, the Royal African Society argues that while recruitment of African medical professionals has shored up western health services, it has left the health sector in sending countries facing permanent crisis or even complete collapse.

Both the size and the relative incidence or frequency of the foreign-born population have increased in all OECD countries since 1995. So while there have been large increases in traditional migration countries such as the US and New Zealand, there have also been sharp rises in Denmark, Korea, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Spain, where inward migration has recently taken off.

Work and family constraints can lead to too few children and too little employment, affecting quality of life and economic performance. Yet many parents would like to go out to work more, while others would like to spend more time raising their children. What can policymakers do to help parents achieve a better work/family balance? The OECD’s Babies and Bosses series offers some lessons.

There are roughly 45 million disabled people living in Europe, but how do they and elderly people like to get around? They would call a taxi. The combination of the personal service that taxis offer, their wide availability and door-to-door operations enable them to respond particularly well to this population’s special travel needs. Although several countries have made progress in improving the accessibility of taxi services, much remains to be done.

The supply of medical staff also reflects global movements of labour. Indeed, there were some 1.3 million foreign born health professionals–nurses, doctors, pharmacists, dentists, etc.–living in OECD countries in 2000, according to a special report in the latest International Migration Outlook.

Offshoring and Employment: Trends and Impacts.

Remember The Travels of the T-Shirt in the Global Economy? As we reported in these pages, this award-winning book tracked the circuitous making and marketing of a T-shirt, from the cotton fields of Texas and a factory in China to a used-clothes bazaar in Africa (“Global yarn”, in No. 251, September 2005, search www.oecdobserver.org).

City managers are important economic players, handling as they do billion-dollar budgets and thousands of employees. In its second territorial review in a series on competitive cities, the OECD explains that in the last few decades, city managers have recognised that inner city problems could not be resolved by throwing more money at them.

Minimum wages are hotly debated as ways of improving equity and boosting the wages of lower skilled workers. All OECD countries apply some kind of wage floor. Do they achieve their goals?

Balancing globalisation is not just about narrowing the gap between countries as winners and losers, but also how the gains and costs of globalisation are distributed within each country. The trouble is, though migration may increase interaction between ethnic groups, racial inequality still persists in the workplace, as an October 2005 report by the Canadian Labour Congress shows.

Matching jobs and qualifications is never easy. Some people inevitably work in jobs for which they are overqualified, but the rate of overqualification is higher among foreign-born populations.

We know quite a lot about how to increase employment rates, but there is no single road to Rome…or Moscow! So said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría, in an address to the meeting of G8 employment and labour ministers in Moscow, 9-10 October 2006. The secretary-general went on to outline the main lessons learned in the recent 2006 reassessment of the 1994 OECD Jobs Strategy and pointed to new challenges.

Globalisation produces winners and losers, including in employment. But while the job threat is real, it is manageable as long as the right policies are in place.

Are older workers denied choice about when and how they retire? Certainly, the average number of years that workers across the OECD can expect to spend in retirement has risen sharply, from less than 11 years in 1970 to just under 18 years in 2004 for men, and from less than 14 years to just under 23 years for women.

For growth and prosperity, companies must focus on high-quality products, customer service and continuous innovation. That means looking beyond shareholders and addressing the needs of ordinary workers, not least in OECD countries.

A decade ago, when the OECD Jobs Strategy was first launched, unemployment was high and persistent in several OECD countries. Since then, a number of them have made significant progress to reduce joblessness. At the same time, the challenges for labour market policies have become broader, with greater recognition of the importance of high employment and better working conditions for good living standards.

Poverty is multifaceted by nature, making cross-country comparisons difficult. Some countries may have a large poverty rate but a high turnover in and out of poverty, implying short poverty spells by many people. Also, poverty incidence may be low in aggregate terms, but with only a low probability of getting out of poverty permanently.

Many governments have made deliberate efforts to cut back on their civil service employment in recent years, both to contain public expenditure and also as part of wider regulatory reforms. Public servant jobs in central, regional and local administrations have decreased, sometimes sharply, in several countries, but have risen markedly in a few others, including Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain. Staffing has risen at regional or local levels in some countries, such as Japan and the US.

Barriers to gender equality may be deep seated and hard to change for cultural reasons, but leaders, business and civil society groups have a role to play in helping to change mindsets. The payback if they try would be substantial.

Gender equality strengthens longterm economic development. This assertion is not some wild, passionate claim, but is based on a new analysis of the relationship between birth rates and attitudes toward gender equality in a range of countries.

Not long ago the term globalisation was held high as a positive force, a rallying cry for nations of all shapes and sizes to come together to build a safer, cleaner, more prosperous world. Today, to many, it is a byword for all things negative, not least for the “delocalisation” (or relocation) of jobs to low-wage countries. Take the debates over EU enlargement and increased trade with China and India. There are diverse concerns animating these discussions, but the impact of globalisation on jobs is one that commentators and ordinary people keep repeating.

More efficient policies to encourage employment and combat unemployment are essential if countries are to reap the full benefits of globalisation and avoid a backlash against open trade, the OECD tells the governments of its 30 member states in the latest edition of its annual Employment Outlook.

Much social progress has been made in recent decades. But there are several serious problems that stubbornly remain on the agenda.

Choosing the career track versus the family track is a personal choice that has become a global concern. Family-friendly policies are essential, says Babies and Bosses - Reconciling Work and Family Life, not only to promote child development and family wellbeing, but to reduce poverty, underpin productivity and bolster employment in our ageing societies.

Anyone who wonders whether a flexible labour market can exist alongside a robust social security system should look no further than Denmark. There, employment protection legislation is less rigid than in some of its neighbours, but unemployment benefits are higher than in more deregulated Anglo-Saxon countries. On the other hand, seriously hunting for work is a precondition of receiving those benefits.

The notion that cutting working time could be an integral part of the fight against high unemployment has been a very controversial one, particularly in Europe. Yet, such was the main policy initiative of the French government in the employment field over the second half of the 1990s.

Record numbers of people are moving to OECD countries to find jobs or join their families, despite an economic downturn in some countries. More than a million permanent immigrants entered the US in 2001 and 2002, some 25% more than in 2000, according to the latest issue of the OECD’s Trends in International Migration.

Every year, over 2.2 million workers die in over 270 million occupational accidents, or from 160 million new cases of reported occupational diseases. Many more are injured or incapacitated because of their work.

The adhesion of 10 new members to the EU is good news for business. After all, with 25 instead of 15 countries, it ushers in an even bigger market for goods and services, capital and labour to move about in. Well, perhaps not quite yet.

Letter to the editor: "Whatever happened to the dream of hedonism we were once led to expect? Surely, new technology should help us work less, but instead the incentive seems to be to take advantage of technology and work even harder!"

“Towards more and better jobs” may seem like a rather obvious theme for an important conference of OECD employment and labour ministers, chaired by François Fillon, the French employment and social affairs minister. After all, unemployment has been rising in almost all countries over the past two years and our economies need to start creating more jobs if they are to cut the unemployment rolls.

When Junichiro Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister, appointed five women to his cabinet in 2001, he was making history by creating his country’s most female government ever. Whether the corporate world follows suit is another matter.

In almost all industrialised countries, the last few decades have seen a sharp rise in female participation in the labour market accompanied by a decline in birth rates. Not so in Italy, though, where increases in female labour force participation, in particular for mothers with young children, have been modest, and where fertility has declined dramatically.

One in seven people of working age in OECD countries claims to have a long-term health problem which limits their activities of daily living. This is a resource OECD countries can ill afford to see go to waste given population ageing and potential labour shortages in the future, a new report says.

The employment record of the OECD area over the last 10 years paints a mixed picture. On the positive side, employment has grown, by about 1% per year in 1991-2001. Governments appear to have responded to the chronically high unemployment of earlier years by introducing a range of structural reforms. But have they gone far enough?

In this Observer roundtable, we have invited employment and labour ministers from a cross-section of OECD countries to answer a straightforward question:

Population ageing is set to affect all OECD countries over coming decades. Demographic projections are uncertain, but on middle-of-the-road assumptions, the ratio of people over 65 to those between 20 and 64 could double between now and the middle of the century. And in some countries, such as Japan, Italy and Spain, this ageing will be much stronger.

The standardised unemployment rate for the OECD area fell to 7.2% in July from 7.3% in June, but stood 0.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

OECD governments face a tough employment challenge. If employment patterns do not change, population ageing will imply a sharp deceleration of labour force growth during the next three decades – including absolute declines in nearly one-half of the OECD countries. This will threaten the solvency of important social programmes and create a drag on living standards.

We are getting older, but are we also getting sicker or less employable? Usually not, though a look at the trends does give rise to just such a question. In many OECD countries, the share of the working-age population receiving income-replacement benefits continued to increase in the 1990s, particularly for old age, disability, lone-parent and social assistance benefits. In some countries, most of the working age people who are neither employed nor studying receive some kind of income-replacement benefit.

It may sound like a truism to say that work should pay. But does it pay as much as it could, particularly for people on very low incomes? This is precisely what governments have been asking as they bid to get people off benefits and into employment.

Supply of training increases with firm size, but demand for courses by employees does not. One often overlooked reason for this is time, or rather, the lack of it.

The employment prospects of women, and older and unskilled workers would improve with training: this key employment policy message is borne out by the pattern of participation in workplace training. Older workers and women simply receive less of it.

OECD Observer No. 239, September 2003

“Remove your labour market rigidities” is a constant refrain governments are well familiar with in OECD countries, particularly (but not exclusively) those facing high unemployment. It is certainly the underlying message in the OECD’s Jobs Strategy issued in the mid-1990s, with its set of policy prescriptions as noteworthy for their market bias as their lack of social content: reform of overly generous unemployment benefits; removal of strict employment protection legislation; restrictions on trade union activities; and elimination or sharp reduction of minimum wages.

The greatest stimulus to employment is economic growth, says Thomas R. Vant, secretary-general of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD. Mr Vant argues that the OECD Jobs Strategy is a blueprint that should be applied more seriously.

While there has been a century-long movement towards a shorter workweek, this trend has slowed in recent decades and appears to have stopped in a few countries.

Rachid is the first in line to apply for work when the factory comes to town. He is hired, along with a few of his friends. So far so good.

The 2003 meeting of OECD Employment and Labour Ministers is timely, as it will look at the acute problem posed by ageing societies, as well as discussing comprehensive policy changes to promote the employment of under-represented groups.

Why should countries care about underemployed groups such as the unskilled, lone parents, women, immigrants and older workers? A harsh question, perhaps, but it is one of the key issues which will be examined by OECD Employment and Labour Ministers at their meeting of 29-30 September, under the title “Towards more and better jobs”.

The standardised unemployment rate (compiled under International Labour Organization Guidelines) for OECD countries remained nearly unchanged at 7.0% in February 2003, albeit 0.2% higher than a year earlier. The rate has been holding steady at 7.0% since last October, and remains the peak figure of unemployment since 2000; it had previously dipped to 6.3% in January 2000.

The information society is all very well, but the trouble is ensuring everyone can be trained up for it, especially those who need it most.

New forms of work appear to be spreading like wildfire as part of the dynamic evolution of labour markets. Or so popular wisdom has it. Is it true? Take temporary employment. It is seen by many as the archetypical new employment arrangement. Its proponents argue that it increases labour market flexibility by making it easier for employers to hire and fire workers in line with shifting demands, as well as making workers themselves more mobile and freer to combine work with other activities, like child-rearing or study. But opponents argue that there are costs to pay for this additional flexibility: temporary jobs are second-class, with substantially worse pay and working conditions than permanent positions.

The rapid technological changes affecting economies and societies around the globe may have transformed firm-to-firm transactions, generated new forms of production and exchange, and created new forms of work, but the new economy has not begun to remove the old economy’s social problems.

It is all over the media: the “new economy” is changing the rules of the game, with potential major implications for workers and labour markets. Indeed, an editorial in The Economist from as long ago as 1993 (20 July) hit directly upon the theme with a catchy phrase: “Your company needs you, for the time being”.

Human capital is one of the buzzwords of the knowledge society. But how do we value it? And what does it tell us about education and future wages? The Observer invited a leading expert in labour economics, Professor Joop Hartog, to explain.