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Across the OECD, policy-makers are grappling with a critical question: how to create jobs? The recent financial crisis and economic downturn has had serious consequences across most OECD countries, with rising unemployment rates and jobs being lost across many sectors. Indeed, for some countries, the effects the downturn brought with it are continuing, if not amplifying. Shrinking public budgets in some countries also mean that policy makers must now do more with less. In this context, it is necessary to think laterally about how actions in one area, such as employment and training, can have simultaneous benefits in others, such as creating new jobs and better supporting labour market inclusion.
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Similar to other OECD countries, the recent economic crisis had a significant impact on Ireland and many of the jobs lost during this period have still not been recovered. As articulated in Ireland’s Action Plan for Jobs, getting people back to work is a top priority for the government, which has set an ambitious target of 100 000 more people in work by 2016 and 2 million people in work by 2020.
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The Local Job Creation project involves a series of country reviews in Australia, Belgium (Flanders), Canada (Ontario and Quebec), Czech Republic, France, Ireland, Israel, Italy (Autonomous Province of Trento), Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States (California and Michigan). The key stages of each review are summarised in .
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This chapter provides an overview of Ireland’s employment and skills system. Ireland’s economy was hit by a profound crisis in 2008, after a decade of confident growth, resulting in a contracting economy and high job losses. Rising long-term and youth unemployment have been particularly stubborn. In response to the crisis, significant institutional reforms are underway impacting employment, vocational education and training, and economic development policies. These reforms are a unique opportunity to equip individuals with the necessary skills for long-term labour market success and make services more responsive to the skill needs of the local economy.
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To better understand the role of the local level in contributing to job creation and productivity, this review examined local activities in two Irish regions: 1) Dublin; and 2) the South-East. This chapter provides a labour market and economic overview of each region as well as the results from an OECD LEED statistical tool which looks at the relationship between skills supply and demand at the sub-national level. Both areas have different local economies and labour market characteristics. Dublin is the economic powerhouse of Ireland while the South East region is significantly smaller and more rural.
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This chapter highlights findings from the local job creation dashboard in Ireland. The findings are discussed through the four thematic areas of the review: 1) better aligning policies and programmes to local employment development; 2) adding value through skills; 3) targeting policy to local employment sectors and investing in quality jobs; and 4) inclusion.
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Stimulating job creation at the local level requires integrated actions across employment, training, and economic development portfolios. Co-ordinated place-based policies can help workers find suitable jobs, while also contributing to demand by stimulating productivity. This requires flexible policy management frameworks, information, and integrated partnerships which leverage the efforts of local stakeholders. This chapter outlines the key recommendations emerging from the review of local job creation policies in Ireland.
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