U.S. labor markets became much less fluid in recent decades. Job reallocation rates fell more than a quarter after 1990, and worker reallocation rates fell more than a quarter after 2000. The declines cut across states, industries and demographic groups defined by age, gender and education. Younger and less educated workers had especially large declines, as did the retail sector. A shift to older businesses, an aging workforce, and policy developments that suppress reallocation all contributed to fluidity declines. Drawing on previous work, we argue that reduced fluidity has harmful consequences for productivity, real wages and employment. To quantify the effects of reallocation intensity on employment, we estimate regression models that exploit low frequency variation over time within states, using state-level changes in population composition and other variables as instruments. We find large positive effects of worker reallocation rates on employment, especially for young workers and the less educated. Similar estimates obtain when dropping data from the Great Recession and its aftermath. These results suggest the U.S. economy faced serious impediments to high employment rates well before the Great Recession, and that sustained high employment is unlikely to return without restoring labor market fluidity.

The BIS Growth Review described advanced manufacturing as that part of the manufacturing sector which: • is intensive in the use of capital and knowledge; • requires long term investment decisions to develop processes and buy equipment (that can take more than a year to manufacture); • uses high levels of technology and R&D and intangible investments (training, improvements to business process) to support innovation; • requires a flexible workforce with strong specialist skills in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and design; • competes in international and domestic markets. In many respects the aim is to encourage all of manufacturing to become advanced manufacturers since it is only becoming this that business will be able to thrive and contribute to the rebalancing of the economy. Advanced Manufacturing represents one of the best opportunities for the UK to rebalance the economy. The sector has the potential to drive up levels of value-added in the economy and make a substantial contribution to export growth. Its global competitiveness is ultimately dependent upon the skills of its workforce. The sector’s potential is evidenced in that it accounted for over half of all UK exports in 2009 and had the fourth highest technology balance of payments of OECD countries. It accounted for 12 per cent of gross value-added (GVA) - at £130bn - and employed approximately 2.6 million people in 2010. Several sub-sectors and major companies have global significance such as the UK aerospace sector with a 25 per cent share of the global aerospace market; its high productivity generates 20 per cent of UK manufacturing sector output from five per cent of its employment. The UK manufacturing sector as a whole contains several world leaders. JCB, for instance, is the world’s third largest manufacturer of construction machines and the UK automotive sector employs approximately 156,000 people directly in vehicle manufacturing - accounting for almost six per cent of all manufacturing employment. And the UK Johnson Matthey company is the world’s largest manufacturer of catalytic converters.

The UK Commission’s Employer Skills Survey 2011 is the key UK data source on employer demand for and investment in skills. It is the first UK-wide employer skills survey and is one of the largest employer skills surveys undertaken in the world, involving over 87,500 interviews with employers across all sectors and covering all sizes of employer. The survey covers topics such as skill related recruitment difficulties, skills gaps, training investment and the work-readiness of education leavers.

The UK Commission’s Employer Skills Survey 2011 is the key UK data source on employer demand for and investment in skills. This report focuses on the findings from the more than 74,000 interviews in England, enabling time series comparisons with the earlier National Employer Skills Surveys (NESS), carried out in England from 2005 to 20091 Work-readiness of those leaving education. The survey covers topics such as skill related recruitment difficulties, skills gaps, employer investment in training, product market strategy and the work-readiness of education leavers. Results are presented by size, sector, occupation, region and local area.

The UK Commission’s Employer Skills Survey 2011 is the key UK data source on employer demand for and investment in skills. It is the first UK-wide employer skills survey and is one of the largest employer skills surveys undertaken in the world, involving over 87,500 interviews with employers. In Wales 6,012 interviews were completed across all sectors and covering all sizes of employer. The survey covered topics such as skill related recruitment difficulties, skills gaps, training investment and the work-readiness of education leavers. Headline findings on these and other topics are provided below.

The UK Commission’s Employer Skills Survey 20111 is the key UK data source on employer demand for and investment in skills. This report focuses on the findings from the 2,500 interviews in Scotland which covered topics such as skill related recruitment difficulties, skills gaps, employer investment in training, product market strategy and the work-readiness of education leavers. Results are presented where possible by size and by sector.

This report analyzes key drivers that will reshape the landscape of work and identifies key work skills needed in the next 10 years. It does not consider what will be the jobs of the future. Many studies have tried to predict specific job categories and labor requirements. Consistently over the years, however, it has been shown that such predictions are difficult and many of the past predictions have been proven wrong. Rather than focusing on future jobs, this report looks at future work skills-proficiencies and abilities required across different jobs and work settings.

Among Canadians aged 15 to 64, Internet access reached near-saturation levels in 2016, but its diffusion into the senior population was far less extensive. This study uses four cycles of the General Social Survey (2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016) to describe changes in Canadian seniors’ rates of Internet use, and examines the sociodemographic factors associated with such use. The findings suggest that age is the primary determinant of Internet use among seniors, but that differences in educational attainment and other demographic characteristics are also important. From 2007 to 2016, Internet use doubled from 32% to 68% among Canadians aged 65 and older. During this time, the absolute gap in the prevalence of Internet use between seniors and Canadians aged 45 to 54 declined from 49 to 28 percentage points. Within the senior population, Internet use progressively declined at older ages. Current age differences in Internet use likely correspond with the comparatively limited exposure of Canadian seniors to the Internet via their social networks, as well as differences in educational attainment and other characteristics correlated with Internet use. This suggests that the slow diffusion of Internet use in the senior population was rooted in historical circumstances more so than reflecting the aging process. Given the comparatively high rates of Internet use among middle-aged Canadians (aged 45 to 54) and younger seniors, it is anticipated that age gaps in Internet use will continue to decrease.

Cognitive technologies and business process reengineering could be a match made in heaven, but only if organisations do the work to redesign their processes with cognitive technologies' specific capabilities in mind. New automation and cognitive technologies present a unique opportunity to redesign knowledge-based work, but they likely will not do so without a concerted effort to redesign work processes around their capabilities. In order to achieve the productivity and effectiveness benefits that these technologies offer, companies may need to adopt, or readopt, techniques from a variety of systematic approaches to process improvement and change. Key Take-outs: While other approaches to organizational structure—primarily including business functions such as marketing, finance, and supply chain—may be more familiar, business processes can bring a powerful perspective on monitoring and improving work. Process thinking is at the core of not only business process reengineering, but also Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, and Lean.