White Paper

The proportion of national income paid to Australian workers has been eroding for the last 40 years: from over 58 per cent labour share of GDP in the mid-1970s, falling to a record post-war low of just 47 per cent in 2017 (Stanford 2018a). Ninety per cent of what labour has lost has been reflected in an increase in the corporate profit share. This observed experience is unravelling traditional expectations that a rising GDP inevitably increases labour incomes, and that labour incomes will automatically rise in step with real labour productivity. A key reason why growth, productivity and wages have been de-linked is the weakening of the redistributive institutions which Australia built during the long post-war expansion – when the country became known as the ‘land of a fair go.’ One of the most important dimensions of this institutional decline has been the dramatic retrenchment in the collective bargaining regime. Introduced in the 1990s as the main pay-setting mechanism for employees, the enterprise bargaining system is now on the brink of collapse. There are far fewer enterprise agreements (EAs), an upturn in employer-led EA terminations, and around 660,000 less workers covered by current EAs at June 2018 than at end-2013. The flip side of this coin has been a noted increase in the proportion of Australian workers whose pay and conditions are set according to the minimum standards of Modern Awards. This report provides a detailed description of the erosion of enterprise bargaining: including its composition and dynamics, and its causes and consequences. It focuses attention on the private sector, where two-thirds of all EA-covered employees worked in 2018 – and where coverage decline has been dramatic. In the private sector the number of current EAs has almost halved, and the number of employees covered has dropped by 34 per cent since end-2013 (peak year), a decline of 662,461 employees. Only 12 per cent of Australians employed in the private sector are now covered by current EAs. Without urgent action to reverse the underlying factors driving down EA coverage, and rebuild a more viable and effective collective bargaining system, coverage could fall to below 2 per cent of private sector workers by 2030.

Globalisation is under attack these days from all quarters. It has of course long faced criticism from the left for being divisive and undemocratic. That’s not new. But, remarkably and in an act of brazen but effective political theft, that core critique – which in effect alleged that the purported universal benefits of globalisation had not ‘trickled down’ inclusively enough and that the process was instead fostering growing and increasingly outrageous inequalities – has been purloined over the course of the past couple of years by the populist right. As we know and now hear almost every day, Donald Trump and his followers look forward to initiating a process of what is being called ‘de-globalisation’ whereby companies are hauled back to their national bases, rust-belts are made good again and trade wars seen as valid tools of national diplomacy.

The focus of this project is on the assessment of transferable skills, and specifically resilience. Resilience has been defined as “the capacity of the person, family, or community to prevent, minimize, overcome, or thrive in spite of negative or challenging circumstances” (Wagnild & Young, 1993). In this report, Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) investigates the most appropriate measures to assess resilience as a learning outcome of Ontario’s postsecondary education (PSE) system. The long-term aim is to support the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) in its efforts to determine the role of PSE in enhancing resilience as a transferable skill.

Postsecondary students have been increasingly combining education and employment as a way of enhancing skills and not only as a way of managing costs. This Mowat note summarizes what descriptive statistics from Statistics Canada’s most recent Longitudinal and International Survey of Adults (LISA) data tell us about students’ work experiences while in postsecondary education.

The threat of automation implies a race between education and technology.1 In most developing countries, education systems are not providing workers with the skills necessary to compete in today’s job markets. The growing mismatch between the demand and supply of skills holds back economic growth and undermines opportunity.

In the aftermath of the economic crisis, few policy issues have attracted as much attention as skills development. Discussion has focused on the types of skills that employees need to ensure they can successfully navigate an ever-more demanding labour market, and those that employers need to have on hand to help them survive in an ever-more competitive marketplace. This has been accompanied by concerns about skills gaps and mismatches — about whether some Canadians are making poor choices when it comes to their education and training, and whether the labour market is beset with a paradoxical combination of over- and under-qualified workers.

Asia-Pacific has been witnessing dramatic shifts in its population. Since 1950, the share of children has consistently contracted, while the shares of working-age and elderly people have steadily risen. On the cover of this report, patterns in the balloon depict shifting shares from 1950 until 2100. Population dynamics and a period of demographic transition will transform the future of the region, with profound implications for human development. The picture of a girl and a boy, a working-age woman and man, and an older woman and man convey that all people—including those with other gender identities—are inherently valuable and ought to be equal members of families and societies. Together, they represent how collaboration and interdependence can lead to greater mutual well-being. Ensuring equal rights and opportunities for all population groups will determine collective strength and resilience. Leveraging the capacity and creativity of different people will enable countries to reach higher levels of human development. The depiction of a hot air balloon carrying the people of the region upwards represents dynamic change and optimism. The balloon can take the region, with more than half the world’s population, to new heights, in any direction. In a time of change, the ability to navigate in the right direction will depend on clear, well-informed policy choices and abilities to adjust to changing needs. Making the most of the dividend that can accrue from demographic transition will require countries to read the wind, and to remain alert and responsive to impending challenges as well as opportunities.

The “Career Pathways” model developed in the US organizes different government support systems and allows adult learners to constantly upgrade skills.

Previous research has shown that employers and employees in rural areas are likely to be disadvantaged with respect to both skills needs and the opportunities for those skills needs to be addressed because of their small and sparsely distributed populations, remote location and distances travelled over a poorer transport infrastructure. This paper uses the UK Commission’s Employer Skills Survey 2011 and Employer Perspectives Survey 2012 to explore differences and commonalities in vacancies, skills deficiencies and approaches to training and staff development.