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The Australian economy in 2008 was one of contrasts: the resource based states continued to grow at relatively higher rates than the remainder; wage and employment outcomes varied widely for different groups in the labour force; and domestic climate change policies achieved prominence just as a global economic downturn led to rapidly changing macroeconomic conditions. Within this rapidly changing context, ongoing concerns with labour utilization, wage equity and issues of compliance appear likely to grow in significance.

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This exploratory study provides an assessment of the 'brain-waste' phenomenon in the United States - a serious waste of human capital resulting from the unemployment or underemployment of highly skilled college-educated immigrants. Brain waste not only impacts the economic development and global competitiveness of host countries, but also intensifies the effects of brain drain in sending countries. In order to measure the scope of the problem, authors examine data across two targeted samples - foreign-educated immigrants overall and legal permanent residents - and analyze this population based on demographic characteristics, immigrant admission category, and work experience in the United States and abroad. Furthermore, the report examines the relative importance of these characteristics on the occupational trajectories of foreign and U.S.-educated immigrants compared with similarly educated native skilled workers.

Authors identify two key factors that contribute to the underutilization of high-skilled immigrant workers: nonrecognition of foreign academic and professional credentials and limited English proficiency. Possible policy paths for addressing these issues are offered. These include: establishing standards for validating credentials obtained abroad by promoting an international accreditation system or by incorporating the assessment of overseas credentials into the admissions process; integrating language learning into workforce development through distance and anytime-anywhere learning strategies; expanding internship and mentorship programs aimed at developing technical language and workforce communication skills; recalibrating admission levels in various work-related streams based on labor market needs; and issuing transitional temporary-to-permanent visas that allow employers and prospective foreign workers to 'test the waters' in the U.S. labor market.

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Just as textile mills and automotive assembly plants have symbolized previous economic eras, the call centre stands as a potent reminder of the importance of information in contemporary economies. [This book] theorizes call centre work as info-service employment and looks at the effects of ever-changing technologies on service work, its associated skills, and the ways in which it is managed. [The author] also considers globalization and contemporary managerial practices as centres are outsourced to poorer countries such as India and as new forms of management are introduced, refined, and discarded. Invoking extensive labour force surveys and interviews from Australia and India, [the author] examines employee representation, work intensity, stress, emotional labour, and job skills in the call centre work environment. The cross-national approach of 'Smiling down the line' highlights the effects of globalization and scrutinizes the similarities and differences that exist in info-service work between different industries and in different countries.

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This work was funded under the Australian Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations' (DEEWR's) Workforce Innovation Program which provides funding for innovative projects that address workforce skills needs. The intention of this project was to develop a contemporary view of skills utilisation from the company perspective and then to apply these learnings to a tool which could be used to help companies move to become high performing workplaces with high levels of skills utilisation. The project was conducted over a two year period from October 2009 to late 2011 and involved a research review, an employer skills utilisation survey, case studies, a pilot of high performance processes, and a final report. This report details the outcomes of the research review and the employer survey. The National Centre for Vocational Education Research was engaged to prepare the review and analysis of national and international research on skills utilisation and high performing workplaces to identify existing organisations' best practice. The survey was administered in late 2009 by the Australian Industry Group. It canvassed a number of issues relevant to skills utilisation: the extent to which companies keep track of workforce skills; company measures of skills utilisation levels; skills utilisation levels by occupation; and human resource management practices employed.

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The [People's Republic of China's] PRC's labor market was hard-hit by the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic and this particularly affected young people. The brief explains how demand- and supply-side factors have contributed to growing youth unemployment and how this has been aggravated by a mismatch between the skills of college graduates and the skills needed by the market. The brief also outlines government efforts to stabilize the labor market-including youth-targeted measures-and identifies short- and long-term actions to create more jobs for young people.

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The project brief was to critically review the findings of the Phase 1 Report of the VEETAC Project `Staffing TAFE in the 21st Century`, and identify critical success factors necessary for TAFE to achieve quality service delivery by developing a functional model of future staffing practices. The project methodology comprised two parts: (1) prepare a preliminary report which reviews the Phase 1 VEETAC report with respect to a number of reference materials; and (2) develop a functional model outlining future staffing priorities for the Victorian TAFE Network. Show less

This report is part of a series that aims to offer policy advice to governments and other higher education stakeholders who would like to learn how well their systems are performing in comparison to others. The series will provide insights on how higher education systems are performing overall and in specific areas; why some systems are performing better than others; and what countries can learn from the experience of others.

Half a million higher education graduates enter the labour market every year in Mexico. While their labour market outcomes are considerably better on average than those of upper secondary education graduates, some higher education graduates face periods of inactivity and unemployment. Many graduates who find work end up being over-qualified or working in the informal sector. This report finds that the Mexican higher education system needs to be better aligned with the labour market to help students develop the skills employers seek. Students need better support to succeed in their higher education studies and develop labour market relevant skills, which will help facilitate their achievement of good outcomes in the workforce. This calls for a comprehensive whole-of-government approach and the involvement of all higher education stakeholders. The report proposes a set of policy recommendations to address these issues and help Mexican higher education graduates achieve better outcomes in the labour market.

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In this paper, we investigate single women's labour supply responses to a series of reforms in Australia since 2004 that affected work incentives of women with children. The responses are separately assessed for two channels: change of hours by the existing workers and participation especially of the non-workers. First of all, we examine whether and how hours of the working single mothers responded to the exogenous changes in the transfer systems. We focus on the flexibility of hours changes within and across jobs, and the impacts of underemployment and over-employment on the changes of hours. In doing so, we wish to shed some light on the possible presence of rigidity in the Australian labour market. Secondly, to give a more complete assessment of the reforms, we study how labour force participation of the single mothers, especially of the non-workers, may have responded to those policy changes. The identification strategy is the Difference-in-Differences approach where we make use of the temporal variations in the policies that do not directly affect the incentives of women without children. We find evidence that the reforms increased both hours of the workers and participation of non workers. The adjustment in working hours was largely through changing employers in an environment that working hours are often constrained within jobs. We also find that workers who are underemployed or over-employed tend to adjust their hours accordingly. The robustness of the findings is confirmed by the results of a number of sensitivity tests including nonparametric propensity score matching.

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Each economic survey issue provides a comprehensive analysis of developments in the subject country, along with individual chapters covering key economic challenges being faced and recommendations for dealing with the challenges. This 2010 edition of OECD's periodic survey of Australia's economy includes chapters covering recovery from the [global financial] crisis, fiscal policy effectiveness, meeting infrastructure needs, and enhancing labour utilisation. The Australian economy has been one of the most resilient in the OECD during the global economic and financial crisis. The impressive results, which are only partially due to links to fast-growing China and India, have shown that the economy was well-prepared to face major shocks. Years of sound policies left ample room for monetary and fiscal policy to act rapidly and forcefully when the crisis struck. A key to the good outcome was the interaction of appropriate macroeconomic policy with structural flexibility of markets, especially financial and labour markets. The strong policy response and encouraging outlook restored confidence rapidly, and exit from the stimulus is underway. The chapters are as follows: Basic statistics of Australia (2009); Executive summary; Assessment and recommendations; Recovering from the crisis and addressing medium-term challenges; Enhancing the effectiveness of fiscal policy; Meeting infrastructure needs; Enhancing labour utilisation in a socially inclusive society.

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Despite a more recent debate about ever deeper segmentation, [the authors] argue that since industrialization, Germany has continually experienced a dual labor market. One segment contains the primary segment of better paid and more attractive jobs, while the secondary segment encompasses rather low paid, less stable and less attractive jobs. It has been argued that this dualization is the result of firms which are likely to hire full-time and long-term workforce for its core activities performed by the core workforce while relying on more flexible forms of employment for other activities. Based on an in-depth examination of the structure of the workforce since the founding of the German state, this paper seeks to explore the factors which account for the origin, evolution and the peculiarities of the country's core workforce. It will be shown that a non-negligible part of the working population has always been subjected to marginalization, but that the dividing line between the two segments has changed over time as has the character of the respective groups.

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