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Comprehensive programs that focus on skills can
reduce unemployment and upgrade skills in OECD countries
Reducing youth unemployment and generating more
and better youth employment opportunities are key policy challenges
worldwide. Active labor market programs for disadvantaged youth may be an
effective tool in such cases, but the results have often been disappointing
in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
The key to a successful youth intervention program is comprehensiveness,
comprising multiple targeted components, including job-search assistance,
counseling, training, and placement services. Such programs can be
expensive, however, which underscores the need to focus on education policy
and earlier interventions in the education system.
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Wage subsidies to encourage employers to hire
older workers are often ineffective
Population aging in many developed countries has
motivated some governments to provide wage subsidies to employers for hiring
or retaining older workers. The subsidies are intended to compensate for the
gap between the pay and productivity of older workers, which may discourage
their hiring. A number of empirical studies have investigated how wage
subsidies influence employers’ hiring and employment decisions and whether
the subsidies are likely to be efficient. To which groups subsidies should
be targeted and how the wage subsidy programs interact with incentives for
early retirement are open questions.
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Time-limited benefits may yield significant
welfare gains and help underemployed part-time workers move to full-time
employment
A considerable share of the labor force consists
of underemployed part-time workers: employed workers who, for various
reasons, are unable to work as much as they would like to. Offering
unemployment benefits to part-time unemployed workers is controversial. On
the one hand, such benefits can strengthen incentives to take a part-time
job rather than remain fully unemployed, thus raising the probability of
obtaining at least some employment. On the other hand, these benefits weaken
incentives for part-time workers to look for full-time employment. It is
also difficult to distinguish people who work part-time by choice from those
who do so involuntarily.
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Single, open-ended contracts with severance pay
smoothly rising with seniority can decrease both unemployment and job
losses
The trend towards labor market flexibility in
Europe has typically involved introducing legislation that makes it easier
for firms to issue temporary contracts with low firing costs, while not
changing the level of protection that is in place for permanent jobs. This
has created a strong “dualism” in some European labor markets, which might
affect turnover, wage setting, and human capital accumulation. In view of
this, some economists propose replacing the existing system of temporary and
permanent contracts by a single open-ended contract for new hires, with
severance pay smoothly increasing with tenure on the job.
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Temporary government schemes can have a
positive economic effect
Government schemes that compensate workers for
the loss of income while they are on short hours (known as short-time work
compensation schemes) make it easier for employers to temporarily reduce
hours worked so that labor is better matched to output requirements. Because
the employers do not lay off these staff, the schemes help to maintain
permanent employment levels during recessions. However, they can create
inefficiency in the labor market, and might limit labor market access for
freelancers and those looking to work part-time.
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Business consulting and supervisory skills
training can improve firm productivity and labor relations
Productivity differences across firms and
countries are surprisingly large and persistent. Recent research reveals
that the country-level distributions of productivity and quality of
management are strikingly similar, suggesting that management practices may
play a key role in the determination of worker and firm productivity.
Understanding the causal impacts of these practices on productivity and the
effectiveness of various management interventions is thus of primary policy
interest.
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Policies to help the unemployed can affect
feelings of identity and well-being, so measures need to be evaluated
carefully
Unemployment not only causes material hardship
but can also affect an individual's sense of identity (i.e. their perception
of belonging to a specific social group) and, consequently, feelings of
personal happiness and subjective well-being. Labor market policies designed
to help the unemployed may not overcome their misery: wage subsidies can be
stigmatizing, measures that require some work or attendance for training
from those receiving benefits (workfare) may not provide the intended
incentives, and a combination of an unregulated labor market and policy
measures that bring people who became unemployed quickly back to work
(flexicurity) may increase uncertainty. Policies aimed at bringing people
back to work should thus take the subjective well-being of the affected
persons more into consideration.
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