IER is undertaking research for the UK Department for Education examining international labour market information systems (LMIS) to investigate practice around gathering, processing, analysing and disseminating labour market intelligence (LMI), and how it is used to identify skills supply and demand – and mismatches – in both the present and future. We have been doing a review of seven national LMIS, including Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Scotland and Sweden. An eighth case study drawing together practice around using big data in national LMIS has also been undertaken.

If you would like to hear some of our initial findings and join the discussions, we are organising an online workshop on 14 June. Please register your interest via the IER website.

After only a few months, the global Coronavirus pandemic has affected workers worldwide in a profound way. Strict social distancing and lockdown measures around the world have halted daily activities, presenting a threat to the livelihoods of billions of workers who rely on their daily earnings in the informal sector.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that almost 1.6 billion informal workers or nearly half of the global workforce are significantly affected by pandemic measures. In Indonesia, 55% of the workforce or around 70 million people work in the informal sector. Unregistered, unregulated and unprotected by secure employment contracts and social safety nets, informal workers are some of the most vulnerable in the labour market.