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.

IER has pioneered labour market assessment and forecasting work in the UK, and remains at the forefront of employment forecasting with an international reputation for the quality of its work.

The 100^th IER Bulletin summarises the findings of Working Futures 2010-2020, the fourth in a series of labour market assessments that provide detailed projections for the UK labour market. It focuses on a ten year horizon, giving a picture of the labour market for 2020; including employment prospects for industries, occupations, qualification levels, gender and employment status for the UK and for nations and English regions. The core purpose of Working Futures is to inform policy development and strategy around skills, careers and employment.

The wordle below illustrates the key words used in the Bulletin.

For further information on IER Forecasting, contact Rob Wilson (r.a.wilson@warwick.ac.uk; 02476 523530)

Work by IER's Dr Clare Lyonette has been featured in an article on the University of Warwick's Knowledge Centre. The article reports on findings from recent research on the differences in couples' decisions to work while children are still young.

The article reflects findings from research undertaken for Dr Lyonette's prizewinning BSA Sage Prize for Excellence paper - ‘We both need to work’: maternal employment, childcare and health care in Britain and the USA - co-authored by Gayle Kaufman and Rosemary Crompton, which was published in Work, Employment and Society 25: 34-50.

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

Today sees the publication of a report of findings from research undertaken by a team at the Warwick Institute for Employment Research and the Institute of Fiscal Studies. The project considered the impact of changes in the structure of employment and pay on income inequality and poverty. It combined employment projections with a tax and benefit model to simulate the distribution of household income, poverty and inequality.

The research found that changes in the labour market, combined with changes to the tax and benefit system, over the next decade are likely to increase relative poverty rates across the UK. It also found that changes that might be expected to lead to lower poverty, such as reducing the gender pay gap or rebalancing regional growth, are (by themselves) unlikely to do so.

The full report is available on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website.