The expectation of rising living standards, with each generation doing better than the one before, has long been a given. More recently, that expectation has diminished—and with good reason. One of the best measures economists use to determine Americans’ economic advancement is whether wages are rising, broadly and consistently. After adjusting for inflation, wages are only 10 percent higher in 2017 than they were in 1973, with annual real wage growth just below 0.2 percent.1 The U.S. economy has experienced long-term real wage stagnation and a persistent lack of economic progress for many workers. For more than a decade, The Hamilton Project has offered proposals and analyses aimed at increasing both economic growth and broad participation in its benefits. This document highlights the necessary conditions for broadly shared wage growth, trends closely related to stagnation in wages for many workers, and the recent history of wage growth, with an emphasis on the experience of the Great Recession and recovery. It concludes by discussing how public policies can effectively contribute to the growth in wages that is a core part of improving living standards for all Americans.

The nature of work is changing. Like other countries, Canada needs to think strategically about how best to use its most important asset, that is to say, its human capital. Automation upsets the traditional methods of work, and our research suggest that about half of the jobs in Canada will experience a significant transformation over the years. Technological changes will affect both men and women in the workforce. However, our analysis reveals that women are more at risk because they occupy more than half of Canadian jobs that are highly likely to be automated, which represent 35% of all jobs. This does not mean that women will lose their historical developments and social because of new technologies. Our work demonstrates that women could be an advantage for the future job market. According to our analysis, skills, digital and social - that women already widely used - will be in high demand in the coming years. However, to help women make the transition, it will change how to evaluate talent. [googletranslate_en]

In this paper we examine whether past labour market reforms aiming at reducing the rate of unemployment have raised its long-run volatility. Using non-linear panel data models applied to 24 OECD countries between 1985 and 2007, as well as Monte-Carlo techniques, we do not find any evidence of such policy trade-off. In contrast, we find that reduced unemployment benefit duration, more competition-inducing product market regulation and looser employment protection legislation are associated with a weaker persistence of unemployment over time, which implies a lower volatility of unemployment in the long run. More specifically, the evidence suggests that even in the case of reforms that may have raised the short term sensitivity of unemployment to business cycles (such as with the easing of employment protection), the weaker persistence effect dominates the higher cyclical volatility, implying a net reduction in long-term volatility.

This summary report is the product of collaboration between five Sector Skills Councils responsible for skills issues in the majority of manufacturing in the UK and seeks to advance understanding of: The strategic context and drivers behind the development of Advanced Manufacturing technologies; The range and scope of Advanced Manufacturing technologies and how they affect many areas of economic life; The current skills issues facing the development of Advanced Manufacturing technologies; Anticipated future skills demand and supply issues, including the identification of skills mismatches; Cross-cutting issues affecting a number of individual Advanced Manufacturing technologies and industries and; Key messages for government and priorities for action to support the development of Advanced Manufacturing.

In the midst of rapid technological change, political polarization and a fragile economic recovery, it is critical that we define, assess and implement new pathways to growth and prosperity. The 2018 edition of the Global Competitiveness Report represents a milestone in the four-decade history of the series, with the introduction of the new Global Competitiveness Index 4.0. The new index sheds light on an emerging set of drivers of productivity and long-term growth in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It provides a much-needed compass for policymakers and other stakeholders to help shape economic strategies and monitor progress.

Predicting the future of work is one of the most exciting - and difficult - areas of research within education today. The implications of changing demand for particular skills on our education systems are enormous. This is why I was delighted to be a part of the foresight exercise to determine the changing demand for skills. The discussions were rich and sophisticated, in large part because of the quality of the thought leaders convened. The discussion was made richer still because we were provided with what you now have: a rigorous catalogue of the trends that will shape the future of work. Our aim in sharing this set of insights is twofold: one, to make visible as much of the research process as possible, and two, to provide you with insights that you can apply, build on, and, of course, critique.

This study takes a closer look at platform-based digital business models and their implications for the economy and for society. While digital platforms have come to play a role in many branches of the economy, the present publication is focussed on the socio-politically most contested ones, namely digital labour platforms. These new platforms are increasingly beset by criticism. Usually they rely on a workforce of independent contractors, who work on their own account and at their own risk, for low wages and without social security. Neither the platform providers nor their clients take on the role and responsibilities of an employer. Labour laws, worker protection, health and safety regulations, quality of work and social security contributions mostly fall to the responsibility of the independent contractors alone, who are also not entitled to the kind of workers' participation common in other sectors. The clients of the platforms essentially gain access to an on-demand workforce, while the independent contractors who provide the labour are subject to precarious working conditions. The study explains the basic mechanisms of three-sided digital labour markets and compares its variants and subcategories. It also explains the specific features and challenges of the different categories and proposes starting points for political measures. The study defines six basic types of digital labour platform. Under the category of cloud work (web-based digital labour) there are freelance marketplaces, micro tasking crowd work and context-based creative crowd work. The category of gig work (location-based digital labour) encompasses accommodation, transportation and delivery services (gig work), and household services and personal services (gig work).

Many economists contend that technology is the primary driver of the increase in wage inequality since the late 1970s, as technology-induced job skill requirements have outpaced the growing education levels of the workforce. The influential “skill-biased technological change” (SBTC) explanation claims that technology raises demand for educated workers, thus allowing them to command higher wages—which in turn increases wage inequality. A more recent SBTC explanation focuses on computerization’s role in increasing employment in both higher-wage and lower-wage occupations, resulting in “job polarization.” This paper contends that current SBTC models—such as the education-focused “canonical model” and the more recent “tasks framework” or “job polarization” approach mentioned above—do not adequately account for key wage patterns (namely, rising wage inequality) over the last three decades.

This document presents data on: (i) current number of workers in the entire global health protection supply chains involving the health economies of 185 countries; (ii) employment potential created by addressing health workforce shortages and producing universal health coverage (UHC); (iii) ratio of jobs in health and non-health occupations needed to achieve health objectives; (iv) number of decent jobs required to allow family care workers filling in for workforce shortages to remain in the labour market. The paper calls for significantly increasing investments in decent jobs for the production of UHC, sustainable development and inclusive growth.