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Germany's labor market responded only mildly to the Great Recession. Important factors for this development include the strong economic position due to recent labor market reforms, the crisis affecting mainly export-oriented companies, the extension of short-time work, time buffers due to working time accounts, the behavior of social partners, and automatic stabilizers. We emphasize the important interaction between short-time work and long-term shortages of skilled workers in sectors particularly affected by the crisis. Although Germany's experience is in stark contrast to the United States, we identify and discuss common challenges at the center of the future jobs debate.

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Given the labor market challenges that countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are facing (notably high unemployment, prevalence of skills mismatches, low labor market mobility, and lack of formal employment networks), active labor market programs (ALMPs) could be a relevant policy instrument to assist unemployed individuals find jobs. This study first introduces a conceptual framework for ALMPs and describes their overall impact on employment outcomes. The study then reviews the provision of ALMPs in a selected group of countries in the MENA region, with a focus on public provision through existing public employment agencies. The study also presents the results of some of the few available robust evaluations of AMLPs the region, in a context where information about program effectiveness and efficiency is largely lacking. Finally, the study identifies key challenges in the delivery of publicly provided ALMPs in MENA countries, namely poor administrative capacity, system fragmentation, lack of governance and accountability, regulation bottlenecks, and flaws in program design.

To address these challenges, the study proposes a reform agenda based on a four-pillar policy framework: (i) develop results-based public private partnerships (PPPs); (ii) promote systems and program integration; (iii) develop results-based monitoring and evaluation (M&E) frameworks; and (iv) promote entrepreneurship/self-employment, on-the-job training and life skills training among job seekers.

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This paper takes a closer look at Tunisia's [Stage d'Initiation a la Vie Professionelle = Initiation into the World of Work] SIVP: an employment subsidy aimed at university graduates and, until recently, the country's largest active labour market policy. Using a tracer survey of the 2004 graduating cohort, [ordinary least squares] OLS and matching techniques are applied to estimate the relationship between programme participation and the labour market outcomes of participants. Graduates who benefited from the programme appear less likely to be unemployed and considerably more likely to have found a job in the private sector - but this may partly reflect selection into the programme, which is not random.

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Unemployment swings have distributional consequences if some groups are hit harder than others. [The author] examine[s] if the sensitivity to local unemployment rates varies by characteristics such as health, cognitive ability and non-cognitive ability. Data on these variables come from registers covering the entire Swedish population of males. [The author] show[s] that variations in the unemployment rate are associated with larger variations for those with poor health or with a low non-cognitive ability. This pattern is found both among young and older individuals. The employment of the lower-educated also varies more with variations in the unemployment rate, but only among younger workers.

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Stagnant earnings and growing inequality in the US labor market reflect both a slowdown in the growth of worker skills and the growing matching of good-paying jobs to skilled workers. Improving the ties between colleges, workforce institutions, and employers would help more workers gain the needed skills. Evaluation evidence shows that training programs linked to employers and good-paying jobs are often cost-effective. Helping more states develop such programs and systems would help raise worker earnings and reduce inequality.

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This paper examines the effect of increased elderly employment in Japan, caused by the legal obligation of continued employment enacted in 2006, on employment of other workers and elderly's own earnings. [The author finds] no evidence for substitution between young full-time workers and elderly workers, while there might be a modest crowd out of middle-aged female part-time workers. [The author also finds] a substantial decline in earnings of baby boomers, who reached age 60 after 2006, in their early 60s. These results suggest that firms primarily cut wages of elderly workers, and some firms reduced the number of female part-time workers.

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In this paper, [the authors] present evidence on how employers in developing and emerging economies perceive employment regulations and react to them. [The authors] use harmonized surveys of about 10,800 firms around the world, supplemented by indicators of the stringency of employment protection that summarize detailed aspects of the labor legislation. [The authors] find that firms facing tight employment protection invest more in training, but also use temporary contracts to enhance labor flexibility. Using a difference-in-difference approach to control for unobservable characteristics, [the authors] find that small firms and those in sectors characterized by greater job reallocation are the most directly affected by employment protection.

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[The authors] examine the association between the receipt of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services and Federal Disability Insurance using a unique panel data source on persons who applied for assistance from Virginia's VR program in 2000. Three central findings emerge: first, VR services are associated with lower rates of participation in disability insurance programs - a nearly two point drop in [Social Security Administration's Disability Insurance] SSDI receipt and one point drop in [Supplemental Security Income] SSI receipt. Second, VR service receipt is associated with lower take-up rates of SSDI/SSI. Finally, among VR applicants on SSDI/SSI, those who receive substantive VR services are more likely to be employed.

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The paper analyses the determinants and short-term effects of labour market reforms, using information from a novel policy compendium that covers 110 developed and developing economies between 2008 and 2014. [The authors] find that the approval of reforms is positively associated with the unemployment rate, the simultaneous implementation of fiscal consolidation measures and the presence of a fixed exchange rate regime. Differences in the results are explored by looking at the direction of reforms (i.e. increasing or decreasing legislation), temporal horizon (i.e. temporary or permanent measures) and coverage (i.e. complete or two-tier reforms); while also analysing separately reforms' determinants across domains of labour legislation (e.g. permanent contracts, collective dismissals). Finally, [the authors] find that deregulatory labour market reforms tend to increase the unemployment rate in the short run when they are approved during contractionary periods - while they have a non-significant effect when approved during periods of economic stability or expansion.

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Federal/state vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies offer services to individuals with disabilities that may help them remain in the labor force and avoid entering Social Security Administration (SSA) disability programs. [The authors] assess how the availability of VR services within an agency at the time an individual applies to receive VR services is related to subsequent application and receipt of SSA disability benefits. [The authors] find that individuals have a higher likelihood of subsequently applying for and receiving disability benefits when they apply in months that the VR agency serves a lower percentage of applicants or has a longer average wait for services.

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