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.

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)

IER welcomes two visitors from the Czech Republic this week (17/18 May). Ludvik Michalicka and Oleksandr Stupnytskyy from RILSA (Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs) will visit the IER to discuss local economic modelling and forecasting. Rob Wilson will be providing information about the IER’s LEFM approach. Further details of the project can be found at:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/research/rlmforecastingmodel/

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.