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This report was presented to the Working Party on the Information Economy (WPIE) in December 2004. It provides an overview of information and communications technology (ICT) skills and employment across OECD economies and analyses some of the impacts on economic performance. It describes a new approach to identifying the diffusion of ICTs in the economy. Two measures of ICT-skilled employment are developed. The first is a narrow measure that uses occupational data to identify ICT specialists (e.g. programmers, software developers but also cable layers). The second is a broad measure that includes those who intensively use ICTs to perform their work (both basic and advanced intensive users), as well as the specialists. These measures are calculated for the economy as a whole and also by sector. The report provides a brief review of earlier attempts to identify the presence of ICTs in the economy and describes a new measurement approach developed for the 2004 ‘OECD information technology outlook’, which attempts to capture the diffusion of ICTs throughout the economy based on the degree of their actual use. The industry rankings based on the share of ICT-skilled employment in total employment are then compared to the results of other studies that classify industrial sectors on the basis of ICT usage. Some preliminary results from the analysis relating the ICT skills measures to productivity measures are presented. The report has expanded the analysis of ICT-skilled employment from the 2004 ‘OECD information technology outlook’ and extended it to include Canada. The analysis revealed that the narrow measure of ICT specialists followed a similar pattern across countries (European Union (EU)15, US, Canada and Australia), but that the trends for broad measure of ICT-intensive users and specialists diverged. The share of broad ICTskilled employment is increasing in the EU15, but decreasing in the US, Canada and Australia. The broad ICT-skilled employment measure was also analysed at the sectoral level. Findings reveal that many business services sectors have a very large share of ICT-skilled employment (e.g. computer and related services, financial intermediation services, and research and development), as well as certain manufacturing sectors (such as manufacturing of office machinery and computers). Personal services tended to have a relatively low share. Most sectors were found to have increased their share of ICT-skilled employment somewhat, particularly those that already had a relatively large share. Show less

The Australian education system fares well in international comparison with regards to [Programme for International Student Assessment] PISA test scores and the higher education system attracts an increasing number of foreign students. Vocational education and training (VET) is an important part of the post-secondary education system, equipping individuals with the skills to enter or re-enter the labour force and offering a pathway to further education. However, a number of challenges need to be addressed. Reducing complexity and fragmentation and tackling issues of under-supply and under-representation of children from disadvantaged groups in the early childhood education and care system is of major importance, given the beneficial impact of early education on outcomes later in life. A key challenge for the school sector is to reduce the achievement gaps of the lowest performing students, while improving overall literacy and numeracy outcomes. Greater autonomy at the school level and improvements in teaching quality would help in this regard. Enhancing the capacity of the VET system to address skill shortages is another key priority. The low rate of completion of training courses is an additional policy issue facing the sector. Finally, moving towards a less rigid policy framework for higher education would enhance flexibility and diversity, making the system more responsive to labour market needs and globalisation challenges. The promotion of a high quality education system that responds swiftly to changing skill needs is a top priority of the new government. The ‘Education revolution’, backed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), pursues reforms across all sectors of the education system, an important objective being the closing of the gap for the Indigenous population.

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The State of Victoria is a knowledge-intensive centre for Australia: educational services are Victoria's strongest export worth more than AUD five billion, surpassing tourism and automotive sectors. Victoria is a magnet for immigration and the international student enrolment represents over 30 per cent of the total for Australia. The higher education system in Australia is moving to a more competitive phase with the decision that the government funding will follow students wherever they choose to enroll. How can Victoria continue to increase participation in higher education and widen access to lower socio-economic groups? How can its higher education institutions help transform Victoria into an innovative state with knowledge-intensive industries and jobs? This publication explores a range of helpful policy measures and institutional reforms to mobilise higher education for regional development. It is part of the series of the OECD reviews of Higher Education in Regional and City Development. These reviews help mobilise higher education institutions for economic, social and cultural development of cities and regions. They analyse how the higher education system impacts upon regional and local development and bring together universities, other higher education institutions and public and private agencies to identify strategic goals and to work towards them.

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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.

Australia successfully ran a job retention scheme that helped support a large number of jobs during the COVID-19 crisis. By April/May 2020, 30.5 per cent of workers were employed on the scheme. Given the improvement of the health and economic situation, the scheme has now ended. Australia increased funding over four years to provide extra support to individuals affected by the crisis. In addition, it offered funding to enhance digital services for jobseekers to compensate for reduced in-person service. Additional training programmes were offered, training was moved online and training places were expanded to ensure individuals could continue to improve their skills in order to be ready for their next job.

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This report assesses the employment, education, training and income support arrangements for young people in Australia and suggests the steps that need to be taken, in light of structural changes in the Australian economy, to improve the long-term employment opportunities and career prospects of young people. The first part of the report contains the 'Examiner's report', which is based on an extensive background report prepared by Australian authorities, additional reports and publications and a two-week study visit by the examiners. The chapters are: Summary of findings and recommendations; Employment and unemployment; Education and training; Income support; An entitlement for young people; Rationalising and decentralising governance arrangements; A framework for new initiatives. Part two of the report contains a record of the review meeting held in Paris on 28 March, 1985. Show less

This joint OECD-ILO report provides a comparative analysis of case studies focusing on improving skills use in the workplace across eight countries. The examples provide insights into the practical ways in which employers interact with government services and policies at the local level. They highlight the need to build policy coherence across employment, skills, economic development and innovation policies, and underline the importance of ensuring that skills utilisation is built into policy development thinking and implementation.

Skills utilisation concerns the extent to which skills are effectively applied in the workplace to maximise workplace and individual performance. It involves a mix of policies including work organisation, job design, technology adaptation, innovation, employee-employer relations, human resource development practices and business-product market strategies. It is often at the local level that the interface of these factors can best be addressed.

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More mothers with young children are in paid work than in the past. There is a long-running debate on possible negative effects of maternal employment on child development. For the first time, this paper presents an initial comparative analysis of longitudinal data on maternal employment patterns after birth on child cognitive and behavioural development. The paper examines data of five OECD countries with different types and intensity of support provided to families to reconcile work and family life. The evidence suggests that a return to paid work by mothers within six months after childbirth may have negative effects on child outcomes, particularly on cognitive development, but the effects are small and not universally observed. Other factors such as family income, parental education and quality of interaction with children have greater influences on child development than early maternal employment per se.

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This paper considers the integration into the Australian labour market of the foreign-born population. It begins with a brief overview of some of the key employment outcomes of immigrants in Australia and then describes the framework for integration, covering the history of migration and integration in Australia, the main migrant groups and their characteristics, the development of selection policy, and an overview of the key integration instruments and the actors involved. Based on this, some issues that are particularly pertinent in the Australian context are analysed, including the impact of selection policy and the recognition of foreign qualifications and the integration of highly skilled migrants on the one side, and of humanitarian migrants on the other side. The report concludes with an overall summary including recommendations. Show less

Australia has been one of the first OECD countries to introduce market-type mechanisms into job-broking and related employment services. In 1998, the Job Network was introduced in Australia to provide job matching and other employment assistance services for the unemployed. Under the new system, these services were subcontracted to hundreds of private and community organisations. The remaining government agency offers services on the same terms and conditions as the private providers and has kept a relatively small share in the market. The government has also decided to maintain only the most cost-effective active labour market programs and has increased emphasis on the principle of 'mutual obligation' in the benefit system where some unemployed people are required to undertake some form of work in return for their benefits. These innovative reforms are part of those introduced in Australia across a wide range of labour market programs along with extensive reforms to the industrial relations system to promote enterprise bargaining. This publication provides a detailed analysis of industrial relations and labour market policies in Australia with a particular focus on recent insights gathered from three years of experience in the operation of a contestable employment services market. It begins with a summary and conclusions section and then provides an overview of the Australian labour market and the institutions involved in labour market policy and employment services. Issues related to the Job Network, placement, unemployment and related benefits, labour market programs, workplace relations, and wage determination are then examined. Annexes contain information on payment mechanisms for competitive employment service provision and three major areas of labour market programs (training and youth programs, indigenous programs, and disability programs). Show less

In times of growing economic inequality, improving equity in education becomes more urgent. While some countries and economies that participate in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have managed to build education systems where socio-economic status makes less of a difference to students' learning and well-being, every country can do more. [This report] shows that high performance and more positive attitudes towards schooling among disadvantaged 15-year-old students are strong predictors of success in higher education and work later on. The report examines how equity in education has evolved over several cycles of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). It identifies the policies and practices that can help disadvantaged students succeed academically and feel more engaged at school. Using longitudinal data from five countries (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, and the United States), the report also describes the links between a student's performance near the end of compulsory education and upward social mobility, i.e. attaining a higher level of education or working in a higher-status job than one's parents.

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