Many countries around the world have experienced an unprecedented increase in the education levels of their populations in recent years. Around half of all young people in Canada, Japan, and Israel complete tertiary education. However, despite huge investment in education, a significant proportion of the workforce in some countries still has very low levels of literacy and numeracy, with negative consequences for future earnings and employment.

Literacy and numeracy skills have positive economic value. Anna Vignoles writes that “even relatively low levels of basic skills in numeracy and literacy attract a wage premium and have done so in many countries for a number of decades.

“…However, the estimates of the wage premium associated with having better basic skills vary substantially across countries. For example, in eight countries the wage premium is below 15% but in six countries it is above 21%. The US shows the highest wage premium from having better numeracy skills at nearly 30%.”

Read further articles on human capital and the labor market:

• What is the economic value of literacy and numeracy? by Anna Vignoles

• Adult literacy programs in developing countries by Niels-Hugo Blunch

• Do higher levels of education and skills in an area benefit wider society? by John V. Winters

• How to reduce workplace absenteeism (Deutsch) by Wolter Hassink

• Compensating displaced workers (Deutsch) by Donald O. Parsons

• Measuring employment and unemployment (Deutsch) by Andrea Brandolini and Eliana Viviano.

• Defining informality vs mitigating its negative effects (Deutsch) by Elizabeth Ruppert Bulmer.

Visit the IZA World of Labor site for more concise, informative, evidence-based articles across the spectrum of labor economics.

All newly published one-pagers are also available to read and download in German. Find out more.

One purported purpose of minimum wage legislation is to increase the incomes of unskilled workers. However, research using US data, plus the bulk of the economic literature, shows that minimum wages usually reduce the job opportunities available to such workers. Youth employment is reduced by 2–3% in response to a 10% increase in the minimum wage. While some workers are lucky enough not to have their hours cut or lose their jobs when minimum wages are imposed or increased, some are not so fortunate. Read the full commentary.

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• IZA/CEPR Annual Symposium in Labour Economics 2018, September 20-21. This year's symposium features a keynote talk by Jesse Rothstein (University of California, Berkeley and IZA). The goal of the symposium is to provide a forum for high-quality work in labor economics and to bring together economists in the field from across Europe as well as key researchers from outside the region. 

• IDSC of IZA Workshop: Matching Workers and Jobs Online - New Developments and Opportunities for Social Science and Practice, September 21-22. Like many forms of economic exchange, the process of matching workers to jobs has rapidly migrated online in the last two decades.

• 3rd IZA Workshop: The Economics of Education, October 4-6. The aim of the workshop is to bring together about 30 researchers working on the economics of education, in particular on the theme "Education and the Labor Market."

• 2nd IZA/HSE Workshop: Ten Years after the Financial Crisis - Labor Market Adjustment in Emerging and Post-Transition Economies - Call for papers, October 11-12. The second IZA/Higher School of Economics workshop will bring together labor economists who are working on labor market adjustment in the post-Soviet states that emerged from the breakup of the Soviet Union, post-transition countries of Central Europe as well as China. While the main focus of the workshop is on the specified topic, papers on other labor market themes pertinent in emerging and post-transition economies will also be considered.