The UK labour market has become more challenging for all jobseekers, with unemployment particularly high among young people and those with limited education and skills. Research published today by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation describes the difficulty of job searching for young people seeking low-skilled work, examining three contrasting local labour market areas in England and Wales.

The report was co-authored by Professor Becky Tunstall (University of York) and Professor Anne Green (IER), Ruth Lupton, Simon Watmough and Katie Bates (LSE).

The Nominet Trust has published a state of the art review undertaken by IER on Employment and the Internet. The report provides a baseline of data around employment and digital technology, mapping emerging employment patterns that may provide opportunities to rethink how we address current levels of unemployment and underemployment.

The report is available to download from the Nominet website.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has today published three reports on Apprenticeships, co-authored by IER and IFF Research.

The reports detail findings from research undertake by IER and IFF using the Apprentice Learner Survey of 5,000 apprentices and provide evidence of the real value of apprenticeships.

• Employer investment in apprenticeships and workplace learning: the fifth net benefits of training to employers study

• Evaluation of apprenticeships: employers

• Evaluation of apprenticeships: learners

Dr Weiping Shi (East China Normal University) and Dr Hong Lu (Chongqing College of Electronic Engineering) will visit IER week commencing 19 March to participate in a series of meetings and presentations in the area of vocational education and training.

The Futuretrack Survey closes on 2 March 2012. The research team are keen to encourage as many people as possible to participants in the survey, to contribute to building a full picture of the labour market and a deeper understanding of the relationship between higher education and employment. Applicants to full-time higher education through UCAS in the academic year 2005/06 are eligible to participate, and have a chance to win a cash prize for completing the questionnaire.

Futuretrack is the most extensive investigation of the relationship between higher education and employment ever undertaken in the UK. The survey is being undertaken by IER on behalf of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit (HECSU)