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This paper extends the analysis of the relationship between skills proficiency and labor market outcomes well beyond the findings in the OECD report on the United States. Among the questions it examines are the following: (1) How do proficiency levels in literacy, numeracy and problem-solving vary between and within demographic, education and occupational groups? For which subgroups is the lack of basic skills proficiency most pronounced? Do we find skill shortfalls in one of the three areas even for native-born groups with postsecondary credentials or in middle-skill occupations? (2) Do weak skill proficiencies significantly limit the ability of workers from obtaining middle-skill credentials and jobs or do those holding such jobs vary widely in their proficiencies? (3) To what extent are earnings differentials related to differentials in literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving levels, even within occupations that do and do not require some postsecondary credentials? (4) To what extent does skill proficiency correlate with worker perceptions of the skill demands of jobs? How do differentials in skill use on the job differ from measures of proficiency? How do these relationships vary across occupations? The answers to these questions highlight key facts and relationships and suggest subsequent analyses of the U.S. PIAAC micro data.

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This article provides information on the labour market participation of Canadians 25 to 64 years of age with a physical or mental disability related to seeing, hearing, mobility, flexibility, dexterity, pain, learning, development, psychological/mental disorders or memory. The factors associated with the employment participation of persons with disabilities are discussed, along with their job characteristics. In 2011, the employment rate of Canadians aged 25 to 64 with disabilities was 49 per cent, compared with 79 per cent for Canadians without a disability. The employment rate among persons aged 25 to 64 with a mild disability was 68 per cent, compared with 54 per cent of those with a moderate disability, 42 per cent of persons with a severe disability and 26 per cent among those with a very severe disability. The difference in employment rates between persons with disabilities and those without a disability was lower among university graduates. This difference was non-significant in the case of university graduates who had a mild or moderate disability. Approximately one in two university graduates, with or without a disability, held a professional occupation. However, graduates with a disability were less likely to hold a management position and earned less than those without a disability, especially among men. Among Canadians with a disability, 12 per cent reported having been refused a job in the previous five years as a result of their condition. The percentage was 33 per cent among 25- to 34-year-olds with a severe or very severe disability.

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This paper asks to what extent parents' education and income are associated with the educational attainment of childhood immigrants who arrived in Canada at age 17 or younger. Childhood immigrants aged 25 to 44 in the 2016 Census were linked to the Longitudinal Immigration Database to determine their parents' education level and income. The results show that both fathers' and mothers' education had a substantial and positive effect on the likelihood of childhood immigrants completing a bachelor's degree or higher. If both parents had a bachelor's degree or higher, the effect was almost doubled, controlling for other background variables. There was some variation by source region. The effect of parents' education was weaker for families from East Asia and Southeast Asia than for those from Europe and English-speaking developed countries, indicating that parental education mattered more for the latter groups. When educational attainment was broadened to include graduation with a trades or college credential as well as a bachelor's degree or higher, the effect of parents' education was much weaker, and the group difference in educational attainment became small. Childhood immigrants are more likely to pursue a bachelor's degree or higher than a trades or college certification, while the opposite is true for children with Canadian-born parents. This tendency among immigrant families to prefer a bachelor's degree or higher also varied substantially by source region. After parental education and other variables were controlled for, family income during the first five years after entry to Canada had only a small effect on the child's educational attainment. The conclusion includes a discussion of the implications of the results and the mechanisms through which these effects occur.

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This report is the eleventh in a series of annual publications produced by the Skills and Labour Market Research Unit in [An tSeirbhis Oideachais Leanunaigh agus Scileanna] SOLAS on behalf of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs. The report aims to provide an indication of the current and future supply of skills available in Ireland; it also aims to provide a profile of the current skills of the population by education level. The report outlines a number of features relating to the supply of skills available in Ireland's labour market.

The report shows that the education profile of the population has shifted towards higher levels of education attainment in recent years. The change is due to a number of factors, including migration, with the impact on the education profile varying according to education level. It is also important to note that the size of Ireland's young adult population has fallen considerably due to low birth rates and high outward migration; this in turn may affect the availability of young, skilled persons in the labour market. In addition, there were also increases in the number of awards made in the further education and training (FET) and higher education sectors. While almost half of awards tend to be in social science, business and law (SSBL) or health and welfare, a growing number are now being made in the more technical areas of science, computing and engineering.

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This paper uses panel data from the British Families and Children Study to analyse the employment patterns of women with children and the ways in which part-time work and interruptions in paid employment influence the wages of working mothers. It pays particular attention to how the relationship between employment trajectory and wage progression compares for higher-skilled and lower-skilled mothers and for mothers of younger and older children. We find that mothers follow a wide variety of employment pathways, the majority working part-time, moving between full-time and part-time employment or moving in and out of work as they combine motherhood with paid employment. In support of results from existing research on the 'part-time' wage penalty and the 'motherhood gap', we find that there are wage penalties associated with unstable work trajectories. Our analysis also shows that such wage penalties are significantly smaller for lower-skilled than higher-skilled women and are experienced by mothers of children of all ages, although the impact appears larger for mothers of younger children. In the final sections, the paper discusses the policy implications that arise from these findings with reference to recent debates on maternal employment, wage progression and poverty reduction.

Published abstract. Copyright Francesca Bastagli, Kitty Stewart. Show less

The National Training Federation for Wales (NTfW) commissioned Arad Research, working in partnerships with Deryn Consulting, to undertake research into the value of apprenticeships to Wales. The aims of the research were to: research available data on the impact of expenditure on apprenticeships on the Welsh economy and businesses in Wales; present data relating to the impact of apprenticeships on learners; review available information on the impact of expenditure on apprenticeships on skills within the public sector in Wales; provide a comparison of Wales-level data with UK-wide data on apprenticeships, including completion rates.

This report sets out the emerging findings of the evaluation based on evidence from desk-based research. Section two provides an overview of the available data on apprenticeships in Wales, including the most recent trends. Section three focuses on the labour market outcomes achieved by those with apprenticeships, in particular earning and employment rates. Section four considers the evidence relating to the wider economic and social benefits of apprenticeships. Section five looks briefly at future demands and needs of the labour market, and in particular the role that apprenticeships can play in addressing the demand for skills and qualifications. Section six includes case studies from employers - within the private and public sector that have benefitted from apprenticeships in Wales.

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Estimation of the causal effect of parental migration on children's educational attainment is complicated by the fact that migrants and non-migrants are likely to differ in unobservable ways that also affect children's educational outcomes. This paper suggests a novel way of addressing this selection problem by looking within the family to exploit variation in siblings' ages at the time of parental migration. The basic assumption underlying the analysis is that parental migration will have no effect on the educational outcomes of children who are at least 20 because they have already completed their educations. Their younger siblings, in contrast, may still be in school, and thus will be affected by the parental migration experience. The results point to a statistically significant positive effect of paternal US migration on education for girls, suggesting that pushing a father's US migration earlier in his daughter's life can lead to an increase in her educational attainment of up to one year relative to delaying migration until after she has turned 20. In contrast, paternal domestic migration has no statistically significant effect on educational attainment for girls or boys, suggesting that father absence does not play a major role in determining children's educational outcomes. Instead, these results suggest that the marginal dollars from US migrant remittances appear to enable families to further educate their daughters. Thus, policymakers should view international migration as a potential pathway by which families raise educational attainments of girls in particular.

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People born in other countries are a growing presence in the [United States] US labor force. In 1994, one in 10 people in the US labor force was born elsewhere, but in 2009, one in seven was foreign born. About 40 per cent of the foreign-born labor force in 2009 was from Mexico and Central America, and more than 25 per cent was from Asia. This document updates the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO's) November 2005 paper 'The role of immigrants in the US labor market'. That earlier report included data through 2004; this update, the first of several on various aspects of immigration, incorporates data through 2009. It focuses on the growing number of foreign-born workers, the countries from which they have come, their educational attainment, the types of jobs they hold, and their earnings. In keeping with CBO's mandate to provide objective, nonpartisan analysis, this report makes no recommendations.

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This study uses data from the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey (JVWS) to examine the characteristics of long-term job vacancies, defined as positions for which recruitment efforts had been ongoing for 90 days or more on the day of the survey. Specifically, the study aims to answer the following questions: What is the prevalence of long-term job vacancies in Canada? How do these vacancies differ from other vacant jobs? Is there a link between the duration of the vacancy and the offered wage?

Findings include: (1) in 2016, long-term job vacancies (i.e. positions vacant for 90 days or more) represented 9 per cent of Canada's 377,500 job vacancies; as a proportion of total labour demand (i.e. job vacancies and occupied jobs), the long-term vacancy rate was 0.23 per cent; (2) the percentage of long-term job vacancies varies by province and territory; in 2016, the North had the highest prevalence of long-term job vacancies, with a proportion of 17 per cent in Nunavut; (3) occupations in health (16 per cent), management (16 per cent) and natural and applied sciences and related fields (14 per cent) had the highest proportions of long-term job vacancies; the lowest proportion was sales and service occupations (5 per cent); (4) in 2016, 19 per cent of vacancies requiring a university degree above the bachelor level had been vacant for 90 days or more, compared with 6 per cent for positions with no educational requirements; and (5) offered wages were higher for long-term job vacancies; even after accounting for the difference in characteristics of long-term job vacancies and other vacancies, offered wages were 5 per cent higher for full-time long-term job vacancies than they were for those who had been vacant for less than 15 days.

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The objective of this article is to analyse the effect of acquiring a new formal qualification as an adult (measured as an upgrade or a side-step) on the likelihood of being in non-precarious employment. Three countries with similar longitudinal datasets are compared: Spain, the UK and Russia. The results indicate that adult education is beneficial in the three countries; with differences, however, depending on the definition of precarious employment used and the (previous) employment status of individuals. The findings suggest that the differences among countries are related to different labour market structures: adult education has a clearer beneficial impact on accessing and remaining in non-precarious employment in more flexible employment systems than in more rigid insider-outsider economies, where labour trajectories are strongly determined by what happens during the first years after school.

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