Browse by: "2007"

Taxing Wages provides unique information on income tax paid by workers and social security contributions levied on employees and their employers in OECD countries. In addition, this annual publication specifies family benefits paid as cash transfers. Amounts of taxes and benefits are detailed program by program, for eight household types which differ by income level and household composition. Results reported include the marginal and effective tax burden for one- and two-earner families, and total labour costs of employers. This year's issue includes a Special feature entitled "Part-time Work and Taxing Wages".

Declining fish stocks and expanding fishing fleets have combined with growing competition from aquaculture to put increased pressure on the fishing sector to adjust the size and nature of its operations in many countries. In some fishing communities, almost sixty percent of jobs are linked to fishing and in many coastal areas there are few alternative employment opportunities for fishers. This conference proceedings analyses the social issues and policy challenges that arise from fisheries adjustment policies, and how OECD member countries are meeting those challenges.

In the quest for more and better lifelong learning, there is a growing awareness that qualifications systems must play a part. Some countries have started to realise that isolated developments in qualifications standards lead to uncoordinated, piecemeal systems. After reviewing the policies and practice in fifteen countries, the authors present nine broad policy responses to the lifelong learning agenda that countries have adopted and that relate directly to their national qualifications system. They also identify twenty mechanisms, or concrete linkages, between national qualifications systems and lifelong learning goals. The overall aim of this book is to provide these mechanisms as a tool for governments to use in reviewing their policy responses to lifelong learning. Evidence suggests that some mechanisms, such as those linked to credit transfer, recognition of prior learning, qualifications frameworks and stakeholder involvement, are especially powerful in promoting lifelong learning.

Offshoring—the transfer of an industrial activity abroad—has become a fact of life for business. But it is also perceived as a threat by a large segment of the general public. And much of the public concern centers on employment, especially the potential loss of domestic jobs. This groundbreaking report provides new insights into the phenomenon of offshoring. First, the report defines offshoring in detail, allowing readers to see the many ways that industrial activity—both in manufacturing and in services—can be transferred abroad. The report then describes the wide-ranging effects that offshoring can have on domestic employment—the positive, as well as the negative. Finally, this ground-breaking report outlines the public policy implications of offshoring. It suggests ways to limit the downside of offshoring while helping to build trust between the various stakeholders working to address this issue.

This review of human resource management (HRM) in Belgian government is the first country review of its kind to be carried out by the OECD. It provides a detailed diagnosis and solutions for improving the management of government employees in the Brussels-Capital Region, Federal Government, Flemish Government, French Community and Walloon Region. The report compares the policies and practices of Belgium with those in other OECD countries, as well as those across different governments in Belgium. Recommendations suggest that governments should reform the intergovernmental framework on employment to remove rigidities and enhance co-operation, pay special attention to staff productivity and efficiency, and enhance the good governance of their HRM systems.

As ageing populations put more downward pressure on economic growth in the coming decades, it is essential that OECD countries improve labour market performance.  This edition of OECD's annual report on labour markets brings the reader not only detailed information on recent labour market developments, but also in-depth analysis of the effects of various policy measures and prospects through 2007.  The analysis includes coverage of labour markets in OECD Countries as well as  in Brazil, China, India and Russia; labour market policies and productivity; the vulnerability of OECD workers in the global economy, and the employment effect of financing social protection. This book includes StatLinks, URLs which link statistical tables and graphs to Excel spreadsheets on the internet.

Local development strategies represent an important response to the challenges of globalisation, while providing a mechanism for seizing the new opportunities that globalisation offers. Nearly two decades after the fall of the Berlin wall, this book evaluates progress made and identifies what needs to be done to speed up the drive towards prosperity in Central and Eastern Europe. It demonstrates that the success of local development strategies depends on the capacity of the government and its partners to accelerate change within the policy and governance aspects of economic and social development.

Improving the performance of youth in the labour market is a crucial challenge in OECD countries facing persistent youth unemployment. Getting off to a good start facilitates integration and lays the foundation for a good career, while a poor beginning can be difficult to make up. Part of a series of reports on the school-to-work transition process in 16 countries, this report surveys the main barriers to employment for young people in Spain and assesses the adequacy and effectiveness of existing measures to improve the transition from school to work.  The report includes a set of policy recommendations for further action by the public authorities and social partners in Spain.

Improving the performance of youth in the labour market is a crucial challenge in OECD countries facing persistent youth unemployment. Getting off to a good start facilitates integration and lays the foundation for a good career, while a poor beginning can be difficult to make up. This report surveys the main barriers to employment for young people in the Slovak Republic, and assesses the adequacy and effectiveness of existing measures to improve the transition from school to work. The report also provides a set of policy recommendations for further action by the public authorities and social partners.

Improving the performance of youths in the labour market is a crucial challenge in OECD countries facing persistent youth unemployment. This report, part of a series which looks at the school-to-work transition process in sixteen countries, contains a survey of the main barriers to employment for young people in Korea, an assessment of the adequacy and effectiveness of existing measures to improve the transition from school-to-work, and a set of policy recommendations for further action by the public authorities and social partners.

When immigrants arrive in a new country, they are confronted with new labour market requirements such as language proficiency, familiarity with job search procedures and work practices which they are not always able to satisfy. These obstacles affect not only new immigrants, but, surprisingly, their children too, even if the children are born and educated in the receiving country.  This publication presents reviews of the labour market integration of immigrants and their children in four OECD countries (Australia, Denmark, Germany and Sweden), and provides country-specific recommendations. Governments have a role to play in promoting language and vocational training, and encouraging diversity in the workplace. Immigrants themselves must accept the requirements of the host country employers. The viability of future migration policies, in particular greater recourse to immigration, will depend to a large extent on how successful OECD countries and immigrants are in achieving these objectives.

Launched in 1998, the latest edition of this series (formerly entitled Benefit Systems and Work Incentives) provides detailed descriptions of all cash benefits available to those in and out of work as well as the taxes they are liable to pay across OECD countries. A special chapter also compares childcare costs across countries and the financial work incentives faced by parents of young children. Using the OECD tax-benefit models, total household incomes and their components are calculated for a range of family types and employment situations. The results are used to examine financial incentives to work, either part-time or full-time, as well as the extent to which social benefits prevent income poverty for those without a job. This volume presents results for 2005 and earlier years.

Government workforces are ageing even more rapidly than the rest of society. This raises specific challenges and opportunities. An ageing public service increases fiscal burdens while decreasing immediate capacities to deliver services. In the long run, however, it also offers a strategic opportunity to downsize the public sector workforce if necessary and to change employment conditions and the management of government employees where this is deemed reasonable. This book reviews the experience of 9 OECD member countries in this field. It presents some conclusions on strategies that countries could implement in order to adjust their human resource policies to the wider ageing challenge. 

Trop de travailleurs quittent pour toujours le marché du travail pour raison de santé. Et trop de personnes affectées d’un handicap se voient refuser la possibilité de travailler. C’est une tragédie à la fois sociale et économique qui frappe pratiquement l’ensemble des pays de l’OCDE. Ce rapport analyse les facteurs qui pourraient expliquer ce paradoxe. Les auteurs s’intéressent plus particulièrement aux cas de l’Australie, de l’Espagne, du Luxembourg et du Royaume-Uni et mettent en lumière le rôle des institutions et des politiques. Cet ouvrage recommande un éventail de réformes susceptibles de répondre aux défis auxquels ces quatre pays font face.