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This report argues that the world now stands on the cusp of a technological revolution in artificial intelligence and robotics that may prove as transformative for economic growth and human potential as were electrification, mass production, and electronic telecommunications in their eras. New and emerging technologies will raise aggregate economic output and boost the wealth of nations. Will these developments enable people to attain higher living standards, better working conditions, greater economic security, and improved health and longevity? The answers to these questions are not predetermined. They depend upon the institutions, investments, and policies that we deploy to harness the opportunities and confront the challenges posed by this new era. How can we move beyond unhelpful prognostications about the supposed end of work and toward insights that will enable policymakers, businesses, and people to better navigate the disruptions that are coming and underway? What lessons should we take from previous epochs of rapid technological change? How is it different this time? And how can we strengthen institutions, make investments, and forge policies to ensure that the labor market of the 21st century enables workers to contribute and succeed?

The MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future was convened in the spring of 2018. Its goals are to understand the relationships between emerging technologies and work, and to explore strategies to enable a future of shared prosperity. To help answer these questions, and to provide a framework for the Task Force's efforts over the next year, this report examines several aspects of the interaction between work and technology.

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While the effects of the outbreak of the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic in the most advanced nations are receiving much attention, the least developed countries (LDCs) are at risk of suffering the most severe economic and social damages. Plummeting exports and drops in tourism and remittances, coupled with even a few weeks of lockdown, are profoundly affecting labour markets in LDCs, not least because most people work informally, have little cash reserves, no paid sick leave, no access to teleworking and nothing to fall back on. At the same time, governments have limited fiscal space available to provide relief to individuals and enterprises. This paper provides an overview of the evolution of the health and labour market crises in the LDCs, drawing on a large set of available data and sources. It highlights how the outbreak is affecting jobs and incomes via multiple channels of transmission. It looks at policy responses so far and provides some suggestions for national employment and economic policies, as well as international support to help LDCs on their path to a job-rich recovery and future resilience.

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This report is based on data from a wide range of resources and explores the trajectory of the West Australian labour market: where it has come from; where it currently stands; where it is headed; and where it could go. The report is divided into two main sections. Part one examines current patterns and trends of the West Australian workforce and what future industry and workforce scenarios may look like as the economy transitions. Particular attention has been paid to youth unemployment, the important role of labour mobility and how outcomes vary geographically. Part two examines current issues around maximising Western Australia's workforce potential, including labour underutilisation, equity in labour market outcomes and the overall wellbeing of the state's workers. Gender equity and Indigenous participation are considered closely, as well as the difficult balancing act between work and family. Key findings are grouped under the following headings: a comparative picture of the West Australian workforce (with the rest of Australia); the labour market in transition; skills and education; equality of labour market opportunity; and work, wellbeing and happiness.

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We explore the rise of the so-called 'gig economy' through the lens of Uber and its drivers in the United Kingdom. Using administrative data from Uber and a new representative survey of London drivers, we explore their backgrounds, earnings, and well-being. We find that the vast majority of Uber's drivers are male immigrants primarily drawn from the bottom half of the London income distribution. Most transitioned out of permanent part- or full-time jobs and about half of drivers' report that their incomes increased after partnering with Uber. After covering vehicle operation costs and Uber's service fee, we estimate that the median London driver earns about £11 per hour spent logged into the app. But while Uber drivers remain at the lower end of the London income distribution, they report higher levels of life satisfaction than other workers. Consistent with a trade-off between evaluative and emotional well-being observed among the self-employed, they also report higher anxiety levels. We hypothesize that the higher life satisfaction among Uber drivers partly reflects their preferences for flexibility and the autonomy that the platform offers. We provide suggestive evidence showing that drivers that emphasize flexibility as an important motivation to join Uber also report higher levels of subjective well-being. Meanwhile, a minority of drivers who report that they would prefer work as an employee report lower levels of life satisfaction and higher levels of anxiety. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of non-monetary factors in shaping the welfare of workers in the gig economy.

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The 2020 [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic has had profound impacts on society, the economy and on the entire education sector. Teachers' workload, well-being, recruitment and retention have been affected by the national crisis. The aim of [National Foundation for Educational Research's] NFER's annual series of Teacher Labour Market reports, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, is to monitor the progress the school system in England is making towards meeting the teacher supply challenge by measuring the key indicators and trends of teacher supply and working conditions. This report remains focussed on these topics, although we have shifted to analysing new and different datasets to focus on the short-term impacts of the pandemic on the teacher workforce rather than on the longer-running trends.

In this report we present new insights on the impact of the pandemic on teachers' well-being, workload, perceived job security and pay. We use the Labour Force Survey (LFS), Annual Population Survey (APS) and the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) COVID-19 surveys to measure changes in the working conditions and well-being of teachers throughout 2020. Crucially, using these household surveys means that we can compare the impact of the pandemic on teachers with the impact on similar individuals in other professions. We present data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) on postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) applications to explore the impact of the COVID-induced recession on interest in entering teaching. We also present new insights from an NFER survey of school leaders, which was conducted in autumn 2020, on their experiences of recruitment and retention during the pandemic.

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Recent reforms to the Australian system of income support for the unemployed have been designed to encourage the welfare to work transition. These changes have made passive receipt of unemployment benefit less attractive and less feasible for those who are unemployed. At the same time, the labour market has been growing strongly and the unemployment rate has reached its lowest level for three decades, so that the prospects of finding a job if unemployed have greatly improved. This paper uses data from two comparable social surveys to examine whether the impact of unemployment on well-being of those in the labour force changed between 1999 and 2006. The results indicate that being unemployed is associated with lower levels of well-being. However, the evidence is mixed on whether the size of the well-being penalty associated with being unemployed increased over the period.

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The [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic has caused nothing short of a revolution in the world of work in the 21st century. Never in most people's living memory has there been a global phenomenon that has reshaped the employment landscape so dramatically in a multitude of countries, dominating economic activity and altering the outlook of the workforce, perhaps forever. This upheaval is still underway but it's clear that things will never be the same again. This year's People at Work study captures these fascinating and unique developments in detail. It highlights just how widespread and globally consistent some of the emerging and escalating trends are, while underscoring how nuanced and complex the situation is at local levels.

Key findings are: (1) Workers want change: re-evaluating the importance of job security and business ethics; (2) Job satisfaction and outlook: employees have high expectations; (3) Pay and benefits: salary is a priority, but it's not all that matters; (4) Mental health: stress is increasing and work is suffering; and (5) Remote work and living arrangements: people poised to make a move.

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This paper uses a dynamic latent factor model to investigate the determinants of not in education, employment or training (NEET) status among adolescents in the United Kingdom. We bring together within one framework various determinants of NEET status, such as educational achievements, non-cognitive skills, family socio-economic factors, aspirations, mental health and local labour market conditions. We model the educational progress over multiple periods through the life of the young person, up to the completion of compulsory schooling. By taking into account this progression, we can determine the direct and indirect impacts of different determinants of NEET status, and the stage in the life of the young person at which each determinant is important.

Our findings suggest that cognitive ability (as measured by educational achievements) remains the key predictor of NEET status. Further, while a range of individual and family factors determines NEET status, the impact of most of these factors is largely indirect, through ability formation and not necessarily direct. To gauge the relative contributions of various determinants, we conduct simulations to predict the probability of the young person being NEET under different scenarios and assumptions. The exercise indicates that the effects of aspirations of the young person, their school engagement, and the local youth unemployment rate on the likelihood of the young person being NEET are as large as boosting their cognitive skills.

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Tackling mental ill-health of the working-age population is becoming a key issue for labour market and social policies in OECD countries. OECD governments increasingly recognise that policy has a major role to play in keeping people with mental ill-health in employment or bringing those outside of the labour market back to it, and in preventing mental illness. This report on Belgium is the first in a series of reports looking at how the broader education, health, social and labour market policy challenges identified in ‘Sick on the job?: myths and realities about mental health and work’ (OECD, 2012) are being tackled in a number of OECD countries. It concludes that Belgium can build on a system with a number of structural strengths that are not yet exploited to the best possible extent.

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We use data from a nationally representative Australian household panel survey to examine the extent and nature of self-reported job discrimination, its correlates, and its associations with various employment outcomes and measures of subjective wellbeing. We find that approximately 8.5 per cent of job applicants and 7.5 per cent of employees report being discriminated against in the preceding two years, most commonly on the basis of their age. Gender is found to be a common factor predicting perceived discrimination in both job applications and in the course of employment, but the determinants of these two types of discrimination are otherwise somewhat different. In particular, age is a significant determinant of perceived discrimination in job applications only, while being a mother of young children is a significant factor only for discrimination in the course of employment. We also find that, holding other traits constant, ethnic and religious minorities are not significantly more likely to perceive they have been discriminated against. Little evidence of adverse effects of perceived job discrimination is found for wage levels, wage changes and the probability of promotion, but we find large negative effects on subjective outcomes such as job satisfaction and self-assessed probability of job loss.

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