The latest NERI Long-Read by NERI Co-directors, Tom McDonnell and Paul Mac Flynn is the 12th in the Long-Read series and the 3rd in a series describing a proposed framework for a new economic model.
As necessary and desirable as they are, high levels of labour force participation and full employment are not in themselves sufficient to guarantee decent living standards. The Long-Read discusses the need for policy to evolve from an ‘any’ job approach to the labour market to a ‘good’ job approach.
Our challenge is twofold with regard to more and better jobs. Firstly of all, policymakers must avoid the mistakes that would threaten full-employment and inculcate an environment that ensures workers and businesses are positioned to flourish in a constantly evolving global economy. We need the right combination of policies and these policies need to be stable over the political and economic cycles. The second task is to realise that full employment is not the same or analogous with good or decent work, and to, therefore, enact a policy suite that uplifts the average quality of employment on the Island while eschewing policies that privilege or incentivise bad jobs.
Some key issues and questions that we consider in the Long-Read include:
(1) The coming trends in the labour market. How we can identify declining and growing sectors and how policymakers should respond?
(2) The potential impediments to labour demand and how we can unblock the barriers?
(3) The major barriers to labour supply and minimising mismatches between labour supply and labour demand;
(4) Defining job quality and identifying its characteristics;
(5) Identifying the key policy interventions to sustainably enhance average job quality.
You can read the Long-Read here.