The European Commission published an action plan on employment, designed to make labour markets more flexible, give workers the skills they needed, improve working conditions, and create jobs. The main goal was to achieve an employment rate of 75 per cent by 2020 for everyone aged between 20 and 64.
Source: An Agenda for New Skills and Jobs: A European contribution towards full employment, European Commission
Links: Action plan | Summary | EC press release
Date: 2010-Dec
The Department for Work and Pensions published a business plan for the period 2011-2015.
Source: Business Plan 2011-2015, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Plan | Scope press release
Date: 2010-Nov
A think-tank report examined the key challenges that threatened to widen the gaps in employability and skills between cities and regions – public sector cuts, and an increasingly knowledge-intensive economy. The private-public gap in skill levels needed to be narrowed by driving up the demand for skills in the private sector. Without this, large scale redundancies within the public sector in some places were likely to result in underemployment or the 'flight' of high-skilled labour to areas of higher demand. An agenda for change was proposed that set out a local and integrated response.
Source: Jonathan Wright, Ian Brinkley and Naomi Clayton, Employability and Skills in the UK: Redefining the debate, Work Foundation
Links: Report | Summary | Work Foundation press release
Date: 2010-Nov
An article examined the impact of the European Union's 'open method of co-ordination' on employment and social inclusion policies at sub-state level in the United Kingdom.
Source: Eilidh MacPhail, 'Examining the impact of the open method of coordination on sub-state employment and social inclusion policies: evidence from the UK', Journal of European Social Policy, Volume 20 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Oct
A report examined how the Department for Work and Pensions used, managed, and prioritized externally commissioned social research.
Source: Iain Boa, Paul Johnson and Suzanne King, The Impact of Research on the Policy Process, Working Paper 82, Department for Work and Pensions
Links: Working paper | DWP press release
Date: 2010-Sep
A think-tank paper said that in order to maximize the benefits of the 'green jobs' revolution, it was necessary to ensure that green jobs were also good jobs, paying a decent wage and offering more and better employment opportunities to a wide range of people.
Source: Jenny Bird, Kandida Purnell and Kayte Lawton, Green and Decent Jobs: The case for local action, Institute for Public Policy Research
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report said that the expected cuts in public sector employment could be absorbed by growing employment in the private sector - but only if the pace and scale of change were well managed and in line with the recovery of the private sector.
Source: Ian Brinkley, Charles Levy and Katy Morris, The Jobs Gap, Work Foundation
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
An audit report reviewed the data systems used to support delivery of the Labour government's public service agreement 8 – to 'maximise employment opportunity for all' – over the period from 2008.
Source: Review of the Data Systems for Public Service Agreement 8, National Audit Office
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Jun
A think-tank report examined the challenges facing welfare-to-work policy. It said that the 'rights and responsibilities' approach of the 1990s had run its course. It proposed instead four core ideas: a job guarantee for anyone at risk of long-term unemployment; a more progressive savings vehicle to encourage people to protect themselves against income shocks; a commitment that no-one who worked hard would live in poverty; and a more personalized approach to support and expectations in the welfare system.
Source: Paul Gregg and Graeme Cooke (eds.), Liberation Welfare, Demos
Links: Report | New Start report | Scotsman report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Apr
The opposition Conservative Party said that, if elected to government, it would introduce a new 'welfare contract' by the end of 2010 – a single comprehensive work programme offering increased support for those looking for work, combined with new sanctions for anyone who refused to work. It would: cut the benefits of anyone on jobseeker's allowance who refused to join the work programme; cut the benefits of anyone who refused to take up reasonable job offers (on the third occasion for up to three years); cut benefits for up to three years for anyone caught repeatedly committing benefit fraud; reassess all existing claimants of incapacity benefits, and transfer to (lower) jobseeker's allowance those deemed to be fit for work; and require long-term benefit claimants who failed to find work to 'work for the dole' on community work programmes.
Source: A New Welfare Contract, Conservative Party
Links: Report | Speech | Conservative Party press release
Date: 2010-Apr
An article examined labour market policy measures adopted to counteract the effects of the economic crisis, comparing the United Kingdom policy response to the reactions of governments in other developed countries. Despite having entered the crisis with one of the least-developed packages of policies to support unemployed people of any country, the UK had done unusually little to bolster provision in this field, despite the social and economic benefits that increased investment would bring.
Source: Daniel Clegg, 'Labour market policy in the crisis: the UK in comparative perspective', Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, Volume 18 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Mar
A think-tank report said that responsibility for back-to-work services should be devolved from central government to local councils. Councils would be rewarded for the savings they made to the national benefits bill – thus having the dual effect of addressing long-term worklessness and helping to restore public finances.
Source: Andrew Jones, Local Work: Empowering local government to tackle worklessness, Local Government Information Unit
Links: Report | New Start report
Date: 2010-Mar
A report provided an overview of the nature and scale of the worklessness problem in Working Neighbourhoods Fund areas, and the strategies in place to tackle it. It also provided feedback on the early deployment of WNF and identified some learning and improvement needs.
Source: Department of Land Economy/University of Cambridge with Cambridge Econometrics and Educe Ltd, The Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) Scoping Study: Worklessness and how WNF is being used to tackle it, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: Report | DCLG press release
Date: 2010-Feb