Reports

Skills are the key to shaping a better future and central to the capacity of countries and people to thrive in an increasingly interconnected and rapidly changing world. Megatrends such as digitalisation, globalisation, demographic change and climate change are reshaping work and society, generating a growing demand for higher levels and new sets of skills. OECD Skills Strategy projects provide a strategic and comprehensive approach to assess countries’ skills challenges and opportunities and help them build more effective skills systems. The OECD works collaboratively with countries to develop policy responses that are tailored to each country’s specific skills needs. The foundation of this approach is the OECD Skills Strategy Framework, which allows for an exploration of what countries can do better to: 1) develop relevant skills over the life course; 2) use skills effectively in work and in society; and 3) strengthen the governance of the skills system. This report, OECD Skills Strategy Bulgaria: Assessment and Recommendations, identifies opportunities and makes recommendations to improve youth skills, improve adult skills, use skills effectively in the labour market and at work, and improve the governance of the skills system in Bulgaria.

Pay transparency policies are gaining momentum throughout the OECD. Over half of OECD countries require private sector firms to report their gender pay gap statistics regularly to stakeholders like employees, employee representatives, the government, and/or the public. Gender pay gap reporting, equal pay audits and other pay transparency policies help advance gender equality at the workplace, as these measures present up-to-date information on a firm’s gender pay gap, encourage employers to offer equal pay for work of equal value, and give individual workers and their representatives valuable insights to fight for pay equity. This report presents the most thorough stocktaking to date of gender pay gap reporting policies and evaluations across OECD countries, and offers guidance to countries interested in introducing, reforming and monitoring their pay transparency systems to promote equal pay for women and men.

From the onset of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, most refugee arrivals have been women and children, creating unique challenges for integration. The share of women among adult refugees is around 70% in most host countries and many have arrived with children, with the share of minors around 30%. Most OECD countries are supporting the socio-economic integration of Ukrainian refugee women through their pre-existing mainstream integration systems. Refugee integration policies have been, however, often created with different gender and educational profiles in mind, which may weaken outcomes in the longer term. There are some promising targeted measures available in OECD countries to support the socio-economic integration of Ukrainian refugee women. These include counselling, networking opportunities, training, and work placements, but also general community-building activities aimed at women.

Protecting people, rather than specific jobs, plays a key role in promoting labour-market inclusiveness and dynamism. Effective unemployment benefits reduce inequality, and raise productivity by facilitating a good match between workers’ skills and job requirements. They are a crucial policy lever for adapting to the major societal, technological and environmental transitions of our time. This report is the first of a number of OECD country reviews of income support policies. Each report analyses key policy challenges, discusses recent reform initiatives, and identifies good practices from other OECD countries. This report on Korea focuses on avenues for strengthening benefit coverage, income security and re-employment in the context of a 'dual' labour market with large parts of the workforce in short-duration, non-standard or informal employment. It welcomes Korea’s recent reforms towards more accessible jobseeker support, and points to priorities for additional policy action to make income and employment support more effective and inclusive.

This is the second edition of a regular publication on public employment and management issues. This edition explores the theme of flexibility in the public service workforce through the angles of workforce mobility, learning and development, and flexible working arrangements. It presents comparative data and analysis as well as country-specific case studies to help governments design and embed greater flexibility. This report also features a synthesis of the OECD review of public service leadership and capability in the Brazilian Federal Public Service. Taken together, the insights of this edition can help guide and shape flexible work practices for a high-performing public service.

Many people with health problems or disabilities leave the labour market permanently even if they still can and want to work. This can lead to low income and reduced social engagement. Governments and employers can help create an environment that supports job retention and a return to work in such situations. This report looks at one critical policy lever: the role of paid sick leave and sickness benefits in protecting workers’ health, jobs and incomes. Korea is among the very few OECD countries without statutory social protection for sick workers and is currently considering closing this gap in its welfare system. This report provides an overview of key features of sickness insurance systems in OECD countries and draws policy lessons for Korea to introduce equitable and adequate social protection for sick workers with a robust return-to-work component and financially sustainable payments that encourage employer involvement.

OECD countries continue to face persistent gender inequalities in social and economic life. Young women often reach higher levels of education than young men, but remain under-represented in fields with the most lucrative careers. Women spend more time on unpaid work, face a strong motherhood penalty, encounter barriers to entrepreneurship and fare worse in labour markets overall. They are also under-represented in politics and leadership positions in public employment. These elements permeate many policy areas and economic sectors – from international trade and development assistance to energy and the environment – in which policy often lacks a strong gender focus. Violence against women, the most abhorrent manifestation of gender inequality, remains a global crisis. This publication analyses developments and policies for gender equality, such as gender mainstreaming and budgeting, reforms to increase fathers’ involvement in parental leave and childcare, pay transparency initiatives to tackle gender pay gaps, and systems to address gender-based violence. It extends the perspective on gender equality to include foreign direct investment, nuclear energy and transport. Advancing gender equality is not just a moral imperative; in times of rapidly ageing populations, low fertility and multiple crises, it will strengthen future gender-equal economic growth and social cohesion.

Protecting people, rather than specific jobs, plays a key role in promoting labour-market inclusiveness and dynamism. Effective unemployment benefits reduce inequality, and facilitate a good match between workers’ skills and job requirements. They are a crucial policy lever for adapting to the major societal, technological and environmental transitions of our time. This report on the United States is the second of a number of OECD country reviews of income support policies. Each report analyses key policy challenges, discusses recent reform initiatives, and identifies good practices from other OECD countries. The report examines the reach and generosity of unemployment insurance and other income support for working age households, with a special focus on disadvantaged labour market groups. What are key gaps in benefit receipt between wage- and salaried employees and non-standard workers (part-time workers, those on temporary contracts, and self-employed workers including own-account workers)? What factors, including race/ethnicity and gender, drive non-entitlement to unemployment compensation? The report examines these questions, considers the impact of recent extensions to the unemployment insurance programme in response to the COVID pandemic, and outlines policy directions for strengthening out-of-work support.

About one in ten young people in Australia are neither in employment, education or training (NEET), a factor that may lower their long-term economic prospects and threaten their well-being. Individuals who did not graduate from upper secondary education, who have health limitations, or who are Indigenous are over-represented in this group. Preventative policies and interventions targeted at adolescents in their early- to mid-teens can reduce the share of young people out of employment, education and training. This report explores what is known about the potential preventative impact of educational and pre-employment interventions on later NEET status and presents a range of policies and initiatives from across the OECD that can reduce the NEET probability among key at-risk populations. The report covers interventions to prevent early school leaving and to promote student engagement and motivation; to strengthen career education, career guidance and employer engagement; and to improve the perception of the vocational education and training (VET) system and the learning of VET students. The report also provides recommendations on improving the monitoring and evaluation of youth policies in general and policies to keep young people in employment, education and training in particular.

This paper introduces the Employer Module of the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), a new OECD survey designed to measure the imbalance between the supply of and demand for the skills needed in the workplace (skill gaps), and how this relates to companies’ business strategy and hiring, training and human resource practices. The document first describes the added value of collecting such data, and the different streams of economic research it can contribute to. It then shows how the Module can complement worker-level information on skill imbalances collected in the OECD Survey of Adult Skills. Lastly, it presents the key technical features of the survey, including the questionnaire’s conceptual development, the units of observation and coverage, the mode of administration, and the requirements for data cleaning and validation.