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.

IER's Anne Green has been announced as a member of the Lead Expert Group of the Foresight Project on the Future of Manufacturing.

The project calls on industry and academic expertise from the UK and abroad to explore how the UK can maximise key opportunities and mitigate risks. In doing so, it will provide a robust evidence base to help ensure that policy decisions taken today are resilient in an uncertain future.

The Lead Expert Group of eminent academic and private sector experts from a range of disciplines works alongside the Foresight team. The project’s fresh thinking, innovative evidence base and futures analysis will help inform policy makers.

Details of the project are available on the Future of Manufacturing website.

IER, in conjunction with Cedefop (the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Education and Training), will be holding a Technical Workshop on Skills Forecasting from 10-11 May 2012 at the University of Warwick’s Warwick in Venice venue. This invitation-only workshop brings together experts from across the EU and other neighbouring countries to discuss issues relating to skills forecasting within the wider context of the Skillsnet network.

The workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to discuss a range of issues including a focus on the latest methodological developments and preliminary results from the 2012 work programme of the Forecasting Skill Supply and Demand project currently being undertaken by a consortium led by IER.

The main funding for the workshop has been provided by Cedefop, with additional support from the University of Warwick, the National Scientific Research Institute for Labour Market and Social Protection and  Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini.

IER's Dr Clare Lyonette has been named as the winner of the 2012 British Sociological Association's Sage Prize for Innovation/Excellence for her paper in the journal 'Work, Employment and Society'. The prize is awarded annually to one paper published in each of the BSA's journals, judged to represent innovation or excellence in the field.

The paper, ‘We both need to work’: maternal employment, childcare and health care in Britain and the USA, was co-authored by Gayle Kaufman and Rosemary Crompton, and was published in Work, Employment and Society 25: 34-50.

Results of the Futuretrack Prize Draw were announced today (28 March). 110 lucky prize draw winners have been selected and contacted by the Futuretrack team with the good news.

HECSU donated 10 prizes of £1000 and 100 prizes of £100 as an incentive for respondents to participate in the final wave of the Futuretrack Survey - the most extensive investigation of the relationship between higher education and employment ever undertaken in the UK.

Data from this final wave of the survey will now be analysed and results published later in the year. For up to date information on Futuretrack, visit http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ier/futuretrack/