IER Newsletter - December 2018

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The staff of IER wish our research partners, funders and all other subscribers a very happy Festive Season and all the best for 2019.

Peter Elias leads workshop on employment statuses in response to Taylor Review

At the end of January 2019 Professor Peter Elias will lead a workshop on ‘Making employment statuses count: Statistical, legal and social perspectives on atypical workers in the digital age’. The workshop will be held at the Royal Society of Arts in London and is funded and co-hosted by Deployed. It responds to the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices call for clarification on the distinction between dependent contractors and the self-employed.

IER to host an event discussing job quality and working life in the UK

In mid-January IER will host a meeting of the Working Life Engagement and Improvement Group. The group was established in 2018 by social scientists committed to using insights from social science to advance the quality of jobs and working life in the UK. For further details contact Chris Warhurst: c.warhurst@warwick.ac.uk.

Talent Match youth employment programme keynote

IER's Gaby Atfield was invited to give a keynote speech at Talent Match Staffordshire's conference and awards ceremony in Lichfield on 22nd November 2018. Talent Match is a five-year, £108m Big Lottery-funded programme supporting young people who are furthest from the labour market, including hidden NEETs who are completely outside the benefits, work and training system, gain the skills they need to get into employment. IER, in partnership with CRESR at Sheffield Hallam University, City-REDI at Birmingham University and Cambridge Economic Associates, have been evaluating the programme across the 21 youth unemployment hotspots in England since 2014.

Employability and tourism education

IER's Heike Behle delivered a keynote on ‘Employability as an outcome of tourism education beyond TEF: Theoretical conceptualisation and measurement’ at the Association For Tourism in Higher Education conference on 'Creativity & Transformation in Tourism Education' on 6th December 2018 at Leeds Beckett University. (Image credit: Lego Grad Student.)

Digital transformation - presentation at the European Commission

Alan Brown, Jenny Bimrose and Rachel Mulvey produced a background paper and presentation for the European Commission High level expert group on the impact of digital transformation on the labour market (led by DG Connect and DG Employment). Rachel Mulvey delivered the presentation at a working group session dealing with skills acquisition for the future in Brussels on 16th November 2018. (Image credit: Associated Press and European Commission).

New publication on women's employment transition in India

A new article co-authored by Sudipa Sarkar on women's employment transition in India has recently been published online in World Development. The research finds that a rise in household income or wealth reduces women's entry into the labour market and increases their exit. Caste, religion, and social status also play a major role in women’s employment dynamics. A rural workfare programme has been found to significantly reduce women’s exit from the labour force. The findings suggest that women’s entry and exit decisions are not symmetrical.

Sarkar, S., Sahoo, S. and Klasen, S. (2019) Employment transitions of women in India: A panel analysis. World Development, 115, pp. 291-309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.12.003

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