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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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The completion of upper secondary education marks the minimum threshold for successful labour market entry and continued employability. Having an upper secondary qualification is the best insurance against the risk of unemployment. This is particularly marked in countries with well-developed vocational education and training (VET) systems. Upper secondary graduates still have many social and economic advantages compared to the less qualified. However, most individuals need to go beyond upper secondary education in order to reap the higher levels of financial reward their country's labour market has to offer.

In most OECD countries, the large majority of adults had at least an upper secondary qualification in 2013, making the completion of upper secondary education the minimum threshold for successful labour market entry and continued employability or the pursuit of further education. Young people who left school before completing upper secondary education face difficulty in the labour market but also have particularly low cognitive skills compared with upper secondary graduates. Those aged 15-29 who left school before completing upper secondary education are twice as likely to have low numeracy scores than those with an upper secondary education. On average across OECD countries, the unemployment rate among 15-29 year-olds not in education is 13 percentage points lower among those with an upper secondary education than for those without. Having a tertiary qualification reduces unemployment rates by a further five percentage points.

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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 Spain] is part of the OECD's ongoing work on building effective national and local skills strategies.

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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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The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) is the reference framework used to classify education programmes and related qualifications by education levels and fields. The basic concepts and definitions of ISCED are intended to be internationally valid and cover the full range of education systems. ISCED 2011, the second major revision of the classification, reflects significant shifts in the structure of tertiary education resulting from the Bologna process in Europe, the development of early childhood education, and increasing interest in statistics on the outcomes of education such as educational attainment. ISCED 2011 has been implemented for the first time in data collected for indicators published in 'Education at a glance 2015'. This new classification offers the potential for new analysis at both tertiary level and in early childhood education.

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This paper explains why a comprehensive skills strategy is needed and offers a comprehensive and integrated framework to assess and identify where policy action is needed to improve skill systems. The framework put forward in this paper builds on the OECD Skills Strategy (2012) as well as the G20 Training Strategy (2010) and the conceptual framework underlying the World Indicators of Skills for Employment (WISE) database which was developed for the G20 Development Working Group. Building on these initiatives, the policy framework to develop and use skills better is designed around three main areas: (1) Building skills for work and life; (2) encouraging firms to invest in skills; and (3) ensuring that skills are fully used (through better activation and matching of skills). Policies in these three areas are instrumental for achieving better economic and social outcomes. In addition, broader labour market settings that enable and provide the right incentives for skill acquisition, higher skill requirements and better skills use are also essential.

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Over the past decades, almost all OECD countries have seen significant increases in the educational attainment of their populations. As the attainment level of the population increases from generation to generation, adults may attain a higher level of education than their parents. The Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), found on average that 39 per cent of adults have achieved a higher level of education than their parents across 24 national and sub-national entities participating. Upward educational mobility may be falling among younger generations as the population has a higher educational level. Still, young people with tertiary educated parents are more likely to participate in tertiary education than those whose parents did not have a tertiary qualification.

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This report is the third edition in a series of annual reports that provide data and policy analysis on inclusive entrepreneurship. Inclusive entrepreneurship involves business start-up and self-employment activities that contribute to social inclusion as well as to economic growth, covering entrepreneurship activities by social groups such as youth, women, seniors, immigrants and the unemployed. The report contains data on the scale and scope of entrepreneurship and self-employment activities across [European Union] EU member states by social target groups, as well as the barriers they face. The report also contains special thematic chapters on supporting growth for entrepreneurs from disadvantaged and under-represented groups, effective coaching and mentoring, and the role of public procurement in supporting inclusive entrepreneurship. Each thematic chapter discusses current policy issues and challenges, and makes recommendations for EU policy makers. The report also provides policy-practice examples from each of the 28 EU members.

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The 'OECD local job creation' series focuses on the role of employment and training agencies in contributing to job creation and productivity. It explores how OECD countries are implementing labour market and skills policy and putting measures in place at the local level to stimulate quality employment, inclusion and growth. The review in Sweden has focused on local activities in Gavle and Stockholm. Both regions face unique but inter-connected employment and skills challenges. This review has analysed how much flexibility local employment and training agencies have in the management of their policies and programmes. The chapters are: Policy context for employment and skills in Sweden; Overview of the Swedish case study areas; Local job creation dashboard findings in Sweden; Towards an action plan for jobs in Sweden: recommendations and best practice.

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The 2015 edition of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Employment Outlook provides an in-depth review of recent labour market trends and short-term prospects in OECD countries. Chapter 1 looks at recent labour market developments focusing on minimum wages, while Chapter 2 draws on the OECD's International Survey of Adult Skills and considers skills and wage inequality. Chapter 3 looks how policies to get job seekers back into work can help make labour markets more inclusive, while Chapter 4 examines job quality in terms of earnings mobility, labour market risk and long-term inequality. Finally, Chapter 5 discusses how job quality in emerging economies can be enhanced.

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