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Across the OECD, the labour-market performance of foreign-born-adults tends to lag behind that of the native-born. Immigrants are not only more likely to be unemployed or inactive, but they also earn less and work in lower-skilled jobs. Foreign-born adults feel their skills are underutilised in some countries. This has considerable consequences for the successful socio-economic integration of immigrants. Differences in skills proficiency, language spoken and country of education explain a large part - albeit not the entirety - of these observed gaps. Policies should therefore aim to provide immigrants with effective language tuition, adult education and training programmes in order to ensure the successful integration of foreign-born workers into host economies.

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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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Drawing on data from two OECD sources, the Survey of Adult Skills and the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), this paper focuses on the current competencies and skill needs of teachers in relation to information and communication technology (ICT) and problem-solving skills. The paper concludes that the education sector performs well for ICT and problem-solving skills as teachers, who make up a large proportion of its workforce, tend to have better ICT and problem-solving skills than the overall population. In Japan and Korea, primary and secondary teachers are over 40 percentage points more likely than other tertiary graduates to have good skills when age is taken into account.

In a world where students must learn to navigate complex digital landscapes to succeed in the future, teachers play an important role which poses high demands on their skills and competencies. This may be why, despite their relatively high skills, more than half of lower secondary teachers expressed the need for professional development in ICT skills for teaching.

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This paper concentrates on the role of foreign students' tuition fees in funding tertiary institutions and on the international mobility of students. The number of students enrolled in tertiary education outside their country of citizenship has been steadily increasing over the last 15 years. Some countries attract foreign students on a revenue-generating or at least a cost-recovery basis, while others do not differentiate between the tuition fees paid by national and foreign students. The evidence from recent tuition-fee reforms suggests that tuition fees influence the choice of destination countries among international new entrants. However, higher tuition fees do not necessarily discourage international students, and can contribute substantially to the funding of tertiary education.

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The OECD annual report on jobs and employment in OECD countries reviews recent trends, policy developments, and prospects. The 2021 edition of the OECD Employment Outlook [available in VOCEDplus at TD/TNC 145.163] focusses on the labour market implications of the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 crisis. Country notes are available for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In some countries, employers used job retention programmes to cut hours while allowing workers to keep their pay and jobs; there, it is likely that the full impact of the pandemic is yet to be felt. In others, there have been unprecedented increases in unemployment, but many workers will return to their jobs (or to new ones) as economies re-open and activity picks up.

The initial impact of the COVID-19 crisis was relatively modest in Korea due to the fast and widespread campaign of test, tracking and tracing that contributed to contain the spread of the virus. The unemployment rate in Korea started to rise from 3.4 per cent in February 2020 and reached 5.4 per cent in January 2021 due to enhanced distancing measures at the end of 2020. After that, it gradually declined to 3.8 per cent by May 2021. In Korea, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a greater impact on vulnerable groups, such as non-regular workers and young people. In 2020, the number of temporary and daily workers decreased by 6.5 per cent and 7.1 per cent respectively, while the number of regular workers increased by 2.1 per cent. The employment rate for young people (aged 15-29) also fell in 2020 by 1.3 percentage points compared to the previous year, showing the largest decline among all age groups.

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This publication examines recent economic developments, policies and prospects in Australia. Special chapters cover taxes and transfers, and federal-state relations. A main finding is that Australia's material living standards and well-being compare well internationally, reflecting a well-managed and successful economy. Recommendations are made in relation to: ensuring price and financial stability; pursuing fiscal consolidation and ensuring efficient tax and public spending; improving framework conditions for business; encouraging employment, deepening skills and addressing inequality; and tackling environmental challenges.

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This brief paper notes that one-third of the population of OECD countries hold an upper secondary vocational education and training (VET) qualification as their highest educational attainment, and it is estimated that nearly half will graduate from a VET programme in their lifetime. However, keeping up with technology developments in industry can be a costly endeavour, although partnering with employers can help to spread the cost of VET programmes. While vocational qualifications offer young people a good chance of finding employment, they are sometimes seen as a second-class choice and limit their value in the labour market overall. Countries need to ensure their vocational programmes offer all students the basic skills they need in the labour market and in life, as well as the opportunity to progress on to tertiary education if they wish.

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The OECD Action Plan for Youth: 'Giving youth a better start' outlines a comprehensive range of measures to tackle the current youth unemployment crisis and to strengthen the long-term employment prospects of youth. The OECD has worked closely with many countries to help them to implement the action plan, taking into account their national context and challenges. It has provided peer-learning opportunities for countries to share their implementation plans. The OECD has also acted as a 'hub for dialogue' between countries, a setting where to discuss what works and what does not from an international perspective based on country experiences. While committing to the action plan for youth, Ministers requested the OECD to report on the progress achieved in implementing the plan at the 2014 Meeting of the Council at Ministerial Level. This document responds to the Ministers' request and reports on the recent policy action that countries have taken to improve youth labour market outcomes. It also reports on the support that the OECD has provided to countries to help them implement the action plan at the national and local level. This has consisted of a three-pronged approach: (i) providing policy advice on developing and implementing policies for achieving better labour market outcomes for youth; (ii) organising international workshops and conferences on topical issues where good practice examples and lessons concerning policy implementation could be identified based on different country experiences; and (iii) continuing to improve the evidence base for policy making. The paper also provides an overview of the labour market situation for youth across OECD Member countries and key partners and assesses the extent to which there has been an improvement.

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Better skills policies help build economic resilience, boost employment and reinforce social cohesion. The OECD skills strategy provides countries with a framework to analyse their skills strengths and challenges. Each OECD skills strategy diagnostic report reflects a set of skills challenges identified by broad stakeholder engagement and OECD comparative evidence while offering concrete examples of how other countries have tackled similar skills challenges.

These reports tackle questions such as: How can countries maximise their skills potential? How can they improve their performance in developing relevant skills, activating skills supply and using skills effectively? What is the benefit of a whole-of-government approach to skills? How can governments build stronger partnerships with employers, trade unions, teachers and students to deliver better skills outcomes? OECD skills strategy diagnostic reports provide new insights into these questions and help identify the core components of successful skills strategies. This report [for Peru] is part of the OECD's ongoing work on building effective national skills strategies.

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Demographic pressure and the youth bulge in the developing world pose a major employment challenge. This situation is exacerbated by insufficient job creation, scarce formal wage employment opportunities and vulnerability in the workplace. For these reasons, fostering youth entrepreneurship has gained importance in the global and national development policy agenda. This report aims to contribute to the ongoing debate on the role of youth entrepreneurship in generating employment in developing countries. It is based on the analysis of mixed labour force and enterprise surveys conducted in Cote D'Ivoire, Madagascar, Peru and Viet Nam, as well as evidence on the impact of entrepreneurship programmes.

This report's findings add to the global debate on youth entrepreneurship in three ways. First, it constitutes an unprecedented effort to capture the real situations and multiple faces of young entrepreneurs in selected developing countries. Second, it provides new empirical evidence on the determinants of youth entrepreneurial performance. Third, it proposes a policy roadmap based on lessons learned from recent meta-analyses of the effectiveness of entrepreneurship programmes.

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