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Disruptions to labour markets caused by the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic, with some sectors of the economy shedding jobs and others frantically searching for workers, made one thing clear. Workers' ability to quickly identify and take advantage of emerging employment opportunities will determine their resilience, over the short and long terms. More effective information tools need to be developed and implemented to help Canadians make the best career and training choices. This study proposes a two-pronged approach to career guidance - one that is primarily focused on skills.

The method consists of first determining suitable employment opportunities based on overlaps between the competencies, work activities and interests in a person's current or most recent occupation and those in alternative occupations, then identifying the skills gaps that must be addressed to make these job transitions possible. The employment alternatives proposed are also selected based on whether they have growth prospects as well as wages that are at least as high as those the worker currently earns or recently earned. To illustrate their method, the authors look at employment alternatives for retail salespersons, cashiers and administrative assistants - three occupations that are at high risk of automation and viral transmission, and that also happen to be among the most affected by the pandemic.

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This report is an analysis of the industrial profiles of Mackay, Central Queensland and the Hunter Valley. It reveals that forcing workers in the coal mining sector out of their jobs, without ensuring alternative employment with similar wages and benefits, would have devastating consequences for those local economies. The report argues that the government must act to create new, reliable, well-paid jobs for regional workers. Also needed are appropriate industry policies to guide economic development, skills and training opportunities for workers of all ages, and support for emerging industries to underpin the future economies of regional Australia.

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This paper examines the role of [employment insurance] EI in providing support to 'displaced workers', those who permanently lose their jobs because of changing circumstances. Adjusting to change benefits Canadians as a whole. However, some workers suffer much more from job loss than do others. Those who have held their jobs for an extended period experience substantial earnings losses, while those who have been employed for brief periods experience small losses. Like other job losers, long-tenure displaced workers experience earnings losses due to reduced income during unemployment following displacement. However, unlike other job losers, many long-tenure displaced workers become re-employed at significantly lower wages. EI does not take into account these consequences of job loss. Long-tenure displaced workers constitute a small minority of job losers. My analysis indicates that job losers with 5 or more years of job tenure constitute about 5 per cent of unemployment and 15-20 per cent of permanent job losers. The paper makes several policy recommendations. Some address gaps in research and knowledge, while others recommend enhanced EI benefits for those who suffer greatly from job loss. Since most loss from displacement occurs after reemployment, wage insurance seems the most promising approach for insuring against large losses.

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Australia is facing increased international pressure to adopt a target of achieving net zero carbon equivalent emissions. This report presents an analysis of the effects of a net zero emissions target on jobs. It is broken up into three sections. The first section finds that a target of net zero emissions would impose significant and irreparable economic and social damage due to the infliction of mass job losses. This report estimates that up to 653,600 jobs would be directly put at risk from a net zero emissions target. This estimate does not include potential indirect job losses which could occur in related industries and the communities where at risk jobs are vital. Potential job losses are concentrated, in order, in the agricultural sector (306,000 jobs), the primary metal and metal product manufacturing sector (74,100 jobs), the electricity supply sector (64,100 jobs), coal mining (62,000 jobs), and air and space transport sector (38,100 jobs). The second section provides an analysis of Commonwealth electoral divisions and ranks electorates by those which contain the most jobs put at risk from a net zero emissions target. The final section outlines recent changes in the labour force, demonstrating that for each new renewable activity job created between 2009-10 and 2018-19, five manufacturing jobs were destroyed.

The report concludes that a net zero emissions target would destroy communities where there is a high reliance on relatively more energy-intensive jobs. Adopting such a target in the wake of the largest economic contraction and employment crisis in recent memory, caused by [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 and resulting lockdowns, would be devastating for Australian workers.

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This paper analyzes whether startups offer job opportunities to workers potentially facing labor market problems. It compares the hiring patterns of startups and incumbents in the period 2003 to 2014 using administrative linked employer-employee data for Germany that allow to take the complete employment biographies of newly hired workers into account. The results indicate that young plants are more likely than incumbents to hire older and foreign applicants as well as workers who have unstable employment biographies, come from unemployment or outside the labor force, or were affected by a plant closure. However, an analysis of entry wages reveals that disadvantageous worker characteristics come along with higher wage penalties in startups than in incumbents. Therefore, even if startups provide employment opportunities for certain groups of disadvantaged workers, the quality of these jobs in terms of initial remuneration seems to be low.

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The US labor market looks markedly different today than it did two decades ago. It has been reshaped by dramatic events like the Great Recession but also by a quieter ongoing evolution in the mix and location of jobs. In the decade ahead, the next wave of automation technologies may accelerate the pace of change. Millions of jobs could be phased out even as new ones are created. More broadly, the day-to-day nature of work could change for nearly everyone as intelligent machines become fixtures in the American workplace. This report analyzes more than 30,000 US counties and 351 cities to examine the impact on local economies and demographic groups in the United States, placing automation in the context of other ongoing labor market trends that have affected places and people. Incorporating the current state of local labor markets as well as the jobs that could be lost and gained in the decade ahead, the research finds that local economies across the country have been on diverging trajectories for years, and they are entering the automation age from different starting points.

The trends outlined in this report could widen existing disparities between high-growth cities and struggling rural areas, and between high-wage workers and everyone else. But this is not a foregone conclusion. The US can improve outcomes nationwide by connecting displaced workers with new opportunities, equipping people with the skills they need to succeed, revitalizing distressed areas, and supporting workers in transition. The report argues that returning to more inclusive growth will require the combined energy and ingenuity of business leaders, policy makers, educators, and nonprofits across the country.

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In a rapidly changing world of work, adults in Australia are being challenged to upskill, retrain and consider alternative career paths. Mid-career adults are in a unique position: they have acquired considerable skills and work experience but still have many years left in the labour market before retirement. They thus may need help to build on their existing skills to progress but have time before retirement to recoup their training investments. If well designed, career guidance can facilitate employment transitions for this group and usefully inform their training choices.

This report assesses the career guidance services that are currently available to mid-career adults in Australia and puts them into an international perspective. New online survey data shows Australia performs well in OECD comparison with respect to the use of career guidance services, but there is room to strengthen the inclusiveness of these services and to tailor them to the needs of mid-career adults. The report provides concrete recommendations in this regard: (1) strengthen co-ordination of career guidance for mid-career adults; (2) support mid-career adults facing job disruption or job transition; (3) support mid-career adults who are unemployed or out of the labour force; and (4) support mid-career adults who are employed and looking to progress in their current job/sector.

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Job displacement (involuntary job loss due to firm closure or downsizing) affects many workers over the course of their working lives. Displaced workers may face long periods of unemployment and, even when they find new jobs, tend to be paid less and have fewer benefits than in the jobs they held prior to displacement. Helping displaced workers get back into good jobs quickly should be a key goal of labour market policy. This report is the second in a series of reports looking at how this challenge is being tackled in a number of OECD countries. It shows that Japanese employers and the government go to considerable lengths to avoid the displacement of regular workers while also providing considerable income and re-employment support to many of the workers whose jobs cannot be preserved. Challenges for labour market programmes include expanding labour market mobility between regular jobs, improving co-ordination between private and public re-employment assistance for displaced workers, and avoiding that job displacement pushes older workers to the margins of the labour market.

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Job loss leads to persistent adverse labor market outcomes, but assessments of gender differences in labor market recovery are lacking. We utilize plant closures in Denmark to estimate gender gaps in labor market outcomes and document that women face an increased risk of unemployment and lose a larger share of their earnings in the two years following job displacement. When accounting for observable differences in human capital across men and women, half of the gender gap in unemployment remains. In a standard decomposition framework, we document that childcare imposes an important barrier to women's labor market recovery regardless of individual characteristics.

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The Skills Bootcamps (employer-led training initiatives) were announced in September 2020 and aimed to test approaches for roll-out to other industries and skillsets. The aim of bootcamps was to help individuals adjust to the changing economy through training to upskill or reskill so to enable transition from work in declining sectors and occupations into new career directions. Outcome measures set by the Department for Education (DfE) concerned entry into work or a different job and whether this represented any form of progression. A process evaluation was commissioned to commence in early 2021 and to track the implementation of the Wave 1 bootcamps through qualitative interviews with a range of stakeholders, a survey of learners and analysis of the management information (MI) that was available and of suitable quality at the time of reporting. These data did not cover all of the bootcamps and more problematically did not consistently cover all of the geographic areas involved. They therefore cannot be viewed as an accurate picture of all bootcamp provision. Instead, they offer an illustrative overview of the bootcamps that submitted full data. The process evaluation of Wave 1 is the subject of this report.

The bootcamps were well received by all stakeholders engaged in the evaluation. The supplied MI, while providing an incomplete picture, suggested high rates of completion alongside learners passing the planned assessments and assignments. It was notable that women participants saw high rates of success in courses, and despite the impacts of the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] pandemic on carers (including those looking after dependent children) this did not appear to have a substantial effect on outcomes. There was overwhelming support for bootcamps to continue to be offered amongst those involved in the evaluation. This evaluation suggests that critical success factors in delivering the bootcamps included flexible and responsive provision which supported learners to train around their existing employment and personal commitments. Second, highly skilled training courses and the close alignment of provision to employers needs were highlighted. Finally, employer involvement in bootcamp training delivery - through learner talks, project briefs and wider networking meant that learners felt well briefed on industry needs.

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