IER News & blogs

As part of the Horizon Europe-funded Skills PULSE project, a newly published study in Applied Economics introduces a novel empirical framework to identify and measure potential skill shortages across European labour markets.

Co-authored by IER’s Dr Sangwoo Lee alongside Seamus McGuinness, Elisa Staffa, Lorcan Kelly, and Paul Redmond, the paper addresses a longstanding gap in the skills mismatch literature, where definitions of skill shortages vary widely and rely heavily on subjective employer surveys.

Orthopaedic Research UK (ORUK) are hosting a conference to showcase breakthrough technologies, practical deployment strategies and collaborative opportunities to help employers prevent work-related musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions.

The event will include speakers from organisations including British Airways, BUPA, Transport for London, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Institute for Employment Research. It will also feature experts on the use of ergonomics and robotics, plus start-ups developing innovative workplace solutions for MSK health.

The conference takes place on 13 October 2026 at the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London W1. Further information and booking can be found here.Link opens in a new window

Careers advice is a critical component of UK education and work transitions, particularly for disadvantaged groups. Around 33% of students currently use Large language model (LLM) tools for guidance, but policy makers, service managers, and practitioners lack evidence on how well they perform.

A new project, led by IER’s Associate Professor Peter Dickinson and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, will address this evidence gap. The project will develop and pilot a framework to evaluate LLM-powered careers advice tools against a human adviser baseline. Further education students and advisors from college around the UK will take part. The advisory group, chaired by Huw Morris, University College London, met in-person at IER this month, bringing a wealth of experience from the Higher Education and Skills sector.

IER's Dr Jamelia Harris presented early findings from the project "Colonial legacies and the labour market in the English-speaking Caribbean" at the Development Studies Association (DSA) Conference 2026. The conference was held in Dublin and brought together development scholars from across the globe.

Dr. Harris' presentation highlighted the economic and labour market transitions in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago from 1800 to today, and how these transitions have been influenced by colonial legacies versus post-independence policies, situating the analysis in debates around dependency versus developmental states theories.

In July, IER Director Chris Warhurst was invited to join a new Health & Safety Executive (HSE) Advisory Group on Psychosocial Hazard Interventions. The purpose of the group is to provide expert challenge, advice and be a sounding board for the HSE as it looks to develop policy and regulation on psychosocial hazards and work-related stress.