Today sees the publication of two reports by Cedefop, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training. These reports are the latest in a series of publications from a 4-year skills demand and supply forecasting project led by IER’s Rob Wilson, working in collaboration with Cedefop and a consortium of partners across Europe.

The latest skill demand and supply forecasts produced for Cedefop aim to provide evidence on future labour market developments to help to make informed decisions. The main findings of the latest skill demand and supply forecast for the European Union for 2010-20 indicate that although the economic conditions will determine only a modest increase in job openings, current trends, including a shift to more skill-intensive jobs, a demand for people to be better qualified and more jobs in services, will continue.

The second publication provides an overview of the methodological framework used to underpin the skills forecasting project.

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).

Bernard Casey will be making a presentation at the forthcoming 2nd International Conference on Evidence-based Policy in Long-Term Care. The conference will be held at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, UK from 5th to 8th September 2012. Bernard's paper will be on "The development of employment and skills in the social care sector: a comparison of Germany and Japan". The paper draws from work Bernard did for Skills for Care and Development (SfC&D). The conference programme with an abstract of the paper can be downloaded from the conference 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)

Many thanks for all your feedback about the Futuretrack study. Owing to popular demand, we have extended the survey until Tuesday 6 March.