This book examines innovative theoretical perspectives and novel labour market policy responses to Europe's changing work demands, employment careers and life courses. It presents creative ideas and recommendations for flexicurity policies at various levels and in different social and economic contexts. The driving factors determining the performance of dissimilar pathways in Europe are identified in regard to their impact on the flexibility/security nexus. Key issues in the current European policy debate are addressed, including how innovative policies are designed in the areas of working time, education, work-life balance, employment relations, retirement and migration, how they are put into practice and what determines their level of success.

This book examines innovative theoretical perspectives and novel labour market policy responses to Europe's changing work demands, employment careers and life courses. It presents creative ideas and recommendations for flexicurity policies at various levels and in different social and economic contexts. The driving factors determining the performance of dissimilar pathways in Europe are identified in regard to their impact on the flexibility/security nexus. Key issues in the current European policy debate are addressed, including how innovative policies are designed in the areas of working time, education, work-life balance, employment relations, retirement and migration, how they are put into practice and what determines their level of success. This volume is an authoritative overview of innovative labour market policies and research findings, with a strong thematic emphasis on life course, transitional labour market and flexicurity approaches. It encompasses a wide array of European countries and is written by a multidisciplinary group of established scholars. This book will be of great interest to researchers, academics and policy makers.

In recent years, rapid technological progress has led to a wholesale destruction of middle-level jobs and a substantial rise in income inequality. It could also bring an era of high structural unemployment. These impacts constitute a major challenge that cannot be ignored by policymakers. They affect the fundamentals of our labor market – and might severely shake the social structure and stability of our society. This new report examines the impacts of technology on the European labor market. The report documents that technological innovation brings not only immense benefits but also significant dislocations in the labor market by making many jobs redundant. HCSS calls upon policymakers to take the risks of job polarization, increased inequality and potentially high technological unemployment quite seriously and suggests some policy measures that could mitigate these risks.The study was conducted in the context of the TNO Strategy & Change program. To download the report, please click on the button on the right.

Knowledge is fast becoming a main source of wealth, but it can also be a source of inequalities. This work addresses whether it is possible to hasten the transition towards a knowledge-based economy and enhance competitiveness with increased employment and improved social cohesion across Europe.

Innovative and creative labour is increasingly recognised as having a key role in regional economic development. The more advanced the processes of innovation-led entrepreneurship are, the more important become highly skilled scientific, engineering, professional and university trained personnel. This has led to the existing concentration in Europe and the US of innovative labour in a limited number of locations (as elsewhere in the world) and the tendency, on both continents for further concentration at these "Islands ...

The market for high-skilled workers is becoming increasingly global, as are the markets for knowledge and ideas. While high-skilled immigrants in the United States represent a much smaller proportion of the workforce than they do in countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, these immigrants have an important role in spurring innovation and economic growth in all countries and filling shortages in the domestic labor supply. This report summarizes the proceedings of a Fall 2014 workshop that focused on how immigration policy can be used to attract and retain foreign talent. Participants compared policies on encouraging migration and retention of skilled workers, attracting qualified foreign students and retaining them post-graduation, and input by states or provinces in immigration policies to add flexibility in countries with regional employment differences, among other topics. They also discussed how immigration policies have changed over time in response to undesired labor market outcomes and whether there was sufficient data to measure those outcomes.

The position of low skilled workers in the labor market has deteriorated significantly over the past three decades. What has caused this deterioration in low skilled labor demand and what can explain the different labor market responses throughout the OECD? Mark Sanders addresses these questions and evaluates proposed policies to improve upon the present situation and prevent further deterioration in the future. The author develops a theoretical framework that produces two hypotheses to explain the shift in relative demand as well as the different ways in which this shift has manifested itself. The framework is then extended by introducing unemployment, and additional hypotheses are proposed to explain the main EU-US differences. The dynamics thus uncovered yield somewhat unorthodox policy implications on income-, labor market and technology policies in Europe and the US. This comprehensive book will appeal to both scholars and academics, while graduate and PhD-students looking for an accessible introduction to modeling the dynamics of technical change and its interactions with the labor market will find it of great interest.