Two further reports have been published by Professor Anne Green, Paul Sissons (Coventry University) and Neil Lee (LSE) from an ESRC-funded project on Harnessing Growth Sectors for Poverty Reduction.

The first report on employment entry finds that there is potential for using a well-targeted, sector-focused approach to increase employment entry and help reduce poverty. Social care and the hospitality industry offer opportunities for sector-specific training programmes for people who find it difficult to access employment. But because these sectors are characterised by low pay policies need to promote career progression as well as job entry. The construction sector is also well placed to provide employment and training opportunities for local residents, and the government could encourage this through procurement and planning policies. There is also growing interest in the potential role of social enterprises in providing local jobs – especially with regard to repairs and maintenance of social housing. Sector-focused work experience is an important way of getting young people and unemployed adults skilled up for work.

The second report examines aspects of job quality. It finds that while job quality should be a critical issue for policymakers there is a lack of empirical evidence from approaches seeking to enhance job quality. Pay and job security are important elements of job quality, as are flexible employment practices that enable people to balance work and caring responsibilities. Trade unions can play an important role in improving job quality outcomes. Where there is evidence from sector-focused approaches to job quality these have sought to link changes in employment conditions with service improvements for employers; utilised procurement as an opportunity to shape job quality; or sought to encourage changes in business models as a precursor to improving job quality. There is a need to pilot and trial different approaches to improving job quality in different sectors and for different types of employment.

In late September, IER's Anne Green travelled to South Africa at the invitation of the Human Sciences Research Council under the auspices of a National Research Foundation Knowledge, Interchange & Collaboration Grant. The purpose of her visit was to exchange knowledge on tackling unemployment issues in the UK, in order to feed into learning on poverty and inequality issues in South Africa. Anne gave a presentation at the Society of South African Geographers Centenary Conference in Stellenbosch and then travelled to Pretoria where she gave a Workshop and a Seminar on unemployment issues and labour market geographies.

Professor Rob Wilson contributes to NatWest's recent blog 'The 50% with Prospects?'. Drawing on IER's Working Futures work, produced by Rob with colleagues in IER and Cambridge Econometrics, he explains that, despite policies to reduce gender discrimination, the occupational employment structure remains “strongly segregated". Rob also talks about the losses of secretarial positions are expected to continue, but an uptick in the female-heavy caring and leisure sectors could provide a counterbalance. Find out more about the future labour market in Working Futures 2014-2014.

New report from the Institute for Employment Research at University of Warwick, commissioned by the Public Policy Institute for Wales, reviews the effectiveness of policies to tackle intergenerational worklessness and fragile employment. The research, Dr Daria Luchinskaya and Professor Anne Green, suggests that intergenerational worklessness is unlikely to be widespread in Wales. However, fragile employment – whereby individuals move repeatedly in and out of employment – is a significant problem for some households and in some communities. The report finds that a ‘Work First’ policy approach (aimed at enabling people to get into work) has had some success but many of the jobs that are secured are part-time, temporary, low skill and low paid. Read the report on the PPIW website.

Dr Mary Gatta from the School of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers University visited the University of Warwick this week sponsored by IER, Sociology and CREW. Dr Gata shared findings from her new book "All I Want is A Job" in a public lecture on 15 January. Her book reveals the experiences of unemployed women as they navigate the US public workforce system and struggle to survive unemployment during the great recession. The lecture brought together interviews with the unemployed and the "street­‐level bureaucrats" who service them, as well as her own experience of going undercover in the US system. Click here for more information on Mary's visit and other CREW events.