Institute for Employment Research » IER News & blogs (tag [forecasting])

Cedefop's latest Skills Forecast

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Cedefop, the European Agency responsible for Vocational Education and Training, have released the latest update to their Skills Forecast data providing labour market projections at a pan-European level from 2022 to 2035. The project was led by Cambridge Econometrics with a consortium of European research organisations, including the IER, and individual country experts from across Europe.

Find out more about individual country reports, the technical report and Cedefop’s Skills Forecast online tool.

IER: still doing a good job in 2025

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 09:00:00 GMT

It’s been a good year for good jobs policy

IER was established 45 years ago with funding from the UK Government and what is now the European Commission. Its task then was to provide labour market forecasts to support policymaking. Although government emphasis on skills has remained constant, government interest in employment policy more broadly has waxed and waned over the years.

Working Futures: Five decades of trying to anticipate changing skills needs

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 11:00:00 GMT

In IER’s latest contribution to the Skills England Research Seminar Series, in June, Prof. Rob Wilson presented ‘Working Futures: Five Decades of Trying to Anticipate Changing Skills Needs.’ In 2025 the IER will have been engaged in skills forecasting for 50 years.

The presentation reflected on the rationale for producing detailed, quantitative, labour market projections and why they are still needed. It drew on five decades of research, focusing on the UK, but also covering work at international level, including Europe and the USA.

Cedefop's latest Skills Forecast

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

Cedefop have released the latest update to their Skills Forecast data providing labour market projections at a pan-European level from 2022 to 2035. The project was led by Cambridge Econometrics with a consortium of European research organisations, including the IER, and individual country experts from across Europe.

LMI for All - Insights into emerging skills needs

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 10:55:00 GMT

A series of foresights posters is now available for seven (sub) sectors: energy, waste management, circular economy, manufacturing, construction, health care and agriculture. The posters present forecast data to 2035 and provide insights into driving forces behind sectoral changes and emerging skill needs.

Cedefop Skills Forecast

Wed, 01 May 2024 13:00:00 GMT

Dr. Jeisson Cardenas-Rubio from IER presented the occupational and qualification forecast for the EU at the expert workshop 'Cedefop Skills Forecast - Preparing the 2025 Release.'

The workshop was organised by Cedefop's Skills Forecast and benefited from the collaboration of a network of Individual Country Experts (ICEs).

The Skills Imperative 2035 projections at national, regional and sub-regional level

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 14:13:00 GMT

National, regional and sub regional level labour market and skills projections to 2035 have now been published as part of the Skills Imperative 2035 Programme with additional funding from the Department for Education (DfE) for the sub-regional analysis.

New UK labour market projections to 2035 released

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 19:43:00 GMT

IER and Cambridge Econometrics have produced new UK labour market and occupational projections to 2035 as part of the Nuffield funded Skills Imperative 2035 Programme led by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).

These projections, led by Professor Rob Wilson, update and extend the Working Futures reports produced just before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Labour market and skills projections: 2017 to 2027

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 10:44:00 GMT

The latest ‘Labour market and skills projections: 2017 to 2027', undertaken by IER’s Professor Rob Wilson and his team, including IER’s Sally-Anne Barnes, Derek Bosworth and David Owen and researchers at Cambridge Econometrics, have just been published by the Department for Education.

Working Futures 2017-2027 is the latest in a series of quantitative assessments of the employment prospects in the UK labour market over a 10-year horizon. It presents historical trends and future prospects by sector for the UK and its constituent nations and the English regions.

The study shows that overall the number of jobs in the UK is projected to rise by around 1 million over the next decade with more of these jobs expected to be taken by female workers than male. The unemployment rate is expected to rise slightly and the expansion of the UK's labour supply is forecast to slow over the next decade, curbed by slower population growth (than during 2007-2017) and an ageing population.

The reports are now available to download here. Follow the IER twitter account for updates on other published outputs from the study.

Working Futures review

Fri, 26 Jan 2018 08:54:36 GMT

Alex Hall, Director and Chief Economist in the Department of Labor and Employment for the state of Colorado, will visit IER in February. Alex is an expert advisor to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US and will work with Professor Rob Wilson to review Working Futures, IER’s flagship programme modelling the UK labour market and funded by the UK Government.