How Do Migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean Fare in the US Labour Market?

This paper discusses the causes of mass migration from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to the United States in recent decades and how these migrants have fared in US labour markets. The evidence shows that LAC migrants have higher unemployment rates and substantially lower wages than other immigrants and natives. Furthermore, the relative wages of LAC migrants have been declining sharply over the last 25 years. The most significant factor explaining the latter is the lower (and declining) educational attainment of LAC migrants relative to other immigrants and natives, compounded by the rising rates of return to education in the US.     

从大学生就业难看中国人才结构培养失衡

<正>2006年11月16日,在中国科学院研究生院召开的科学与人文论坛上,劳动和社会保障部部长田成平表示,2006年高校毕业生比2005年增加了75万人,总量达到413万人。按照70%的初次就业率计算,2006年高校毕业生约有124万人无法实现当期就业。大家心知肚明,无法当期就业不过是失业的一个美好说法而已。     

有经验人士将在未来6-8年内成为职场香饽饽

<正>专业招聘机构万宝盛华(Manpow-er)在26个国家进行的一项调查显示,全球许多地区正出现专业人才短缺问题,迫使雇主们支付更高的工资。     

Exchange Rates,Employment and Labour Market Rigidity

In this paper, we study the effect of labour market rigidity on the impact of exchange rate shocks on employment. We use a panel dataset comprising 22 manufacturing sectors across 23 OECD countries. In our econometric model, the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on sectoral employment is mediated by the degree of openness and by a measure of labour market rigidity: the OECD's employment protection legislation (EPL) index. Our results suggest that greater labour market rigidity reduces the impact of exchange rate shocks on employment. This effect is statistically significant for low‐technology sectors.     

市场规模、信息服务外包与出口贸易

本文将联合国贸发数据库中信息服务产业的贸易数据与我国投入产出表中数据相匹配,基于FH指数和DJ指数测算了我国制造业的信息服务外包率,随后利用2003-2011年我国制造业细分行业的面板数据对市场规模、信息服务外包与出口贸易之间的关系进行了实证检验。计量结果显示:一方面,市场规模的增加会促进出口贸易;另一方面,开展信息服务外包虽然会抑制市场规模对出口的促进作用,但是可以降低运输成本和交易成本,两者的净效用为正。这说明,发展信息服务外包可以有效增加我国制造业出口。分位数回归结果表明:在低点位上,劳动密集型行业与知识密集型行业的信息服务外包可以显著提升出口;在高点位上,资本密集型行业的信息服务外包对出口的促进作用更加明显。     

从劳动力市场的二元结构特点看就业政策

传统新古典经济学认为。劳动力市场是一个连续的竞争性市场,劳动力价格即均衡工资决定于劳动力的供给和需求状况。如果劳动力供给大于需求,市场均衡工资水平就会下降;反之亦然。实际上,劳动力市场存在“二元结构”,是一个非连续性的分割市场,这在发展中国家更为明显。劳动力市场可以一分为二。即“主流劳动力市场”和“非主流劳动力市场”。     

Trade,Technical Change,and Labour Market Adjustment

This paper empirically examines three possible reasons for the high and rising unemployment of low‐skilled employees in Germany: (i) an upsurge in inter‐industry trade, (ii) a skill‐biased technical change, and (iii) a failure of labour market adjustment. The empirical analyses indicate that an exogenous wage‐setting process as well as a bundle of factors, including a skill‐biased technical and structural change, have contributed to the decline in relative demand for low‐skilled employees in Germany. Thus, economic policy in Germany should focus on improving the employability of workers in the lower segment of the labour market and on raising the adjustment flexibility, above all the flexibility of the wage structure, of the German labour market.     

Labour Market Participation of Older Workers: Drivers and Obstacles

Intereconomics - From an international comparative point of view the paper deals with driving forces and potential obstacles for the labour market participation of older workers. It goes into depth...     

Occupations in the European Labour Market During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In order to capture the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market, several aspects need to be taken into account. First, containment measures put in place in member states at different times and with different levels of severity determined the interruption of several economic activities that were considered non-essential. Second, different occupations require varying degrees of physical proximity and social interaction to be carried out; this implies that they can be considered more or less teleworkable, and affected by different levels of epidemiological risk of contagion. This paper shows the labour market impact of the pandemic on different categories of workers in the EU. Occupations are distinguished by three main characteristics: whether they are critical or non-critical, their level of technical teleworkability and the level of social interaction required in the job. We show that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market has been heterogeneous across occupations and that all three dimensions are relevant to determine whether and to what extent the occupations were affected by the pandemic.

     

Labour Market Institutions and Household Consumption Insurance within OECD Countries

This paper tests empirically whether the effect of idiosyncratic income shocks on aggregate consumption depends on institutional features of national labour markets. The results show that, in a sample of 15 OECD countries, institutional heterogeneity is a significant determinant of the response of household consumption to country‐specific income shocks. This is consistent with the idea that institutionally provided social insurance may help increase income stability when people differ in their ability to access financial markets and smooth consumption fluctuations.     

EMU and Labour Market Reform: Needs,Incentives and Realisations

Despite improving labour market conditions in recent years, a number of EMU countries still suffer from high and persistent unemployment. It could therefore be expected that labour market reform would be given a prominent position on the political agenda. The new constraints associated with the common monetary policy only increase the pressure for reform. Relying on the introduction of the single currency as a trigger for labour market reform may be a risky strategy. EMU generates a complex set of re‐optimising strategies of the players on the labour market, which makes it difficult to get a clear idea what impact it will have on labour market reform. Evaluation of recent reform measures does not make one confident either. The empirical analysis confirms to some extent the idea that countries with higher unemployment rates have carried out more labour market reform. This finding holds, however, only for countries that do not belong to EMU. EMU countries have on average carried out no more reform than countries outside EMU and any link between the initial unemployment level and the labour market reform indicators seems to lack. It may become apparent that more reform is needed once the macroeconomic environment becomes more unfavourable.     

The Behaviour of Graduates in the SME Labour Market: Evidence and Perceptions

This paper uses three surveys of graduates' and undergraduates' evaluations and perceptions of the conditions of work in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the U.K. The first survey addresses the relationship between the actual career profiles of graduates and their perceptions of work in small vis-à-vis large companies. The second survey is a large-scale national study of U.K. graduates' employment patterns. The third survey asked undergraduates how they expected working conditions might differ across firm size. The distribution of graduates across firm size is presented; this shows graduates to be disproportionately employed in larger firms. The work of graduates across firm size is then described in terms of earnings; work bargaining and fringe benefits; training and the internal labour market; and the work environment. For each facet, perceptions about work conditions are also explored. The evidence shows the working conditions for graduates are lower quality in SMEs and that graduates broadly perceive this to be the case. The implications for policies which overlook these conclusions are discussed.     

Profit Related Pay and the U.K. Small Firm Labour Market

This paper critically examines the relevance of profit related pay (PRP) for the U.K. small firm sector. Since 1986, the U.K. government has actively encouraged PRP, which attracts generous tax breaks, because it believed that PRP would make pay more flexible downwards and would significantly improve employee identification, morale and productivity. An analysis of the theoretical arguments and the assumptions made regarding the nature of the U.K. small firm sector that underlay these claims suggests, however, that the likelihood of achieving either of these alleged benefits is small. An appraisal of the available empirical evidence on the practical implementation and operation of PRP schemes suggests that the tax relief simply encourages firms to introduce cosmetic schemes that have no appreciable impact upon the behaviour of either firms or employees. Moreover, the experience of some firms that adopted PRP schemes indicates that, far from increasing morale and productivity, PRP often creates new tensions and conflict between owners and employees. These and other unintended consequences illustrate the inherent difficulties of government attempts to use the tax system to alter the behaviour of agents engaged in a wide variety of complex and very heterogeneous bargaining situations.     

The Development of Tertiary Services in the Economy,Labour Market and Employment

The purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of selected antecedents on the service recovery performance of frontline employees using data from frontline bank employees in Turkey. The results of the path analysis indicate that trait competitiveness, intrinsic motivation, and role ambiguity are significant antecedents of frontline employees' service recovery performance. Results also suggest that the significant consequences of service recovery performance are job satisfaction and intention to leave. The results of the other hypothesised linkages demonstrate that intrinsic motivation, emotional exhaustion, and role ambiguity are significantly associated with frontline employees' job satisfaction. In addition, the current empirical findings provide support for the notion that role ambiguity and emotional exhaustion are significant predictors of intention to leave. Limitations of the study, managerial implications, and implications for future research are discussed.     

Flexicurity – a European Approach to Labour Market Policy

Although linguistically somewhat strange, “flexicurity”, the combination of labour market flexibility and security for employees, has become a much praised cornerstone of European labour market policies. Obviously, in an environment with rapid technical progress and frequently changing market conditions, employers need to manage their labour force flexibly. In order to achieve this flexibility without creating an unbearable situation for employees, security is the second pillar of the concept. Security refers, however, to “employability” rather than safety from dismissal. As such, the concept looks like an innovative European way of consolidating economic and social interests, although some argue that much flexibility is gained while the security aspect is being neglected. The concept has been successfully adopted in some European countries, notably Denmark and the Netherlands. However, each country has to find its own concept of “flexicurity” using a distinct combination of instruments that fit the national institutional, social and civic context.     

美国大银行举手叩击中国大门

美国投资银行雷曼兄弟宣布,已与中国华融资产管理公司组建新的合资公司。1年前华融举行了第二次不良贷款国际拍卖。     

Industrial Specialization,Catching‐up and Labour Market Dynamics

This paper presents a dynamic model as a heuristic tool to discuss some issues of changing industrial specialization which arise in the context of catching‐up processes of (technologically) less advanced economies and the impact which various scenarios of such catching‐up processes might have on the labour market dynamics both in the advanced and in the catching‐up economies. In analysing the evolution of international specialization, we demonstrate the twin pressures exerted upon the industrial structures of “northern” economies: competition from “type‐A southern” economies, which maintain a comparative competitive strength in labour‐intensive and less skill‐intensive branches, and competition from “type‐B catching‐up” economies, whose catching‐up increasingly focuses upon branches in which the initial productivity gaps and hence the scope for catching‐up are the highest. The contrast between these two catching‐up scenarios allows the explicit analysis of the implications of “comparative advantage switchovers” between northern and southern (type B) economies for labour market dynamics.     

The Effects of Globalisation on the US Labour Mark'et: Service Sectors Considered

How has globalisation affected employment and wages in the United States? Existing studies largely ignore the intersector labour movement between the manufacturing and service sectors by focusing only on the intrasector movement within the manufacturing sector. However, by decomposing the aggregate labour demand in the United States, we find that the intersector movement is more substantial than intrasector movement. Motivated by the decomposition results, this study presents a three‐sector model that includes a manufacturing sector and two service sectors at varying skill intensities. The model shows that offshoring might translate into smaller‐than‐expected wage changes because of the intersector labour movement. In line with the theoretical predictions, two notable empirical results are presented. First, an occupation's exposure to offshoring has non‐significant, albeit negative, effects on wages. Second, the more an occupation is exposed to offshoring, the lower its employment in the manufacturing sector as a share of its total employment. Furthermore, these effects are larger for more routine occupations or those requiring less education.