The latest published OECD Labour Market Report, Employment Outlook 2021, points out that the slow recovery in jobs entails a high risk of long-term unemployment and how governments have responded by building on skills to sustain the situation.
The data collected show that the youth employment gap in particular increased dramatically in 2020, with almost 3 million young people in OECD countries being NEETs compared to 2019. Adults are not in a better position: compared to 2019, there are currently 14 million people inactive in OECD countries: this means people who do not work or seek work. The average unemployment period has also increased between 6 and 12 months.
A positive message in this drastic pandemic situation is the response of national governments to the crisis, increased awareness that this historic moment represents a unique opportunity “to restore more resilient labour markets and to address the long-term structural challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis”.
The current response, which is very different from what was observed in previous crises throughout history, has not reduced resources: on thecontrary, national governments have devoted unprecedented recovery funds ready for 5-10 reconstruction periods. One important example is the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility: EUR 723.8 billion (in 2020 prices) in the form of loans (EUR 385.8 billion) and grants (EUR 338 billion) available to support reforms and investments undertaken by European Member States.
An OECD survey shows that 53 % of countries increased support to jobseekers in 2021 and that 52 % increased support for matching skills and talent needs. Upskilling and reskilling of the labour force are clearly identified in the OECD survey as a tool to help recover more quickly those at higher risk of chronic unemployment.
Best practices from European countries
In terms of best practice, in some countries, public employment services are implementing concrete examples of this approach. For example, in Ireland, the Department of Employment and Social Protection has created a place linking redundant workers from recent closures to jobs in health, retail, life sciences, infrastructure and information technologies, customer support and other sectors facing short-term staffing needs. The LithuanianPublic Employment Service also worked with a large-scale Courser Open Online Courser (MOOC) provider to provide free courses for unemployed adults in summer and autumn 2020. Thousands of unemployed adults who participated in online learning have been involved in this initiative. The public employment services in Brussels also developed an active campaign on their websites using their newsletter to promote training offers (in particular basic digital skills and language learning) and motivate adults to use them. The Italiangovernment has also set up a website that gathers various short courses that can help managers and employees develop skills and competences for more efficient teleworking.
Several governments have also worked with educational institutions to make rapid progress in providing online learning during the pandemic. For example,France launched free online vocational education and training courses for three months, including the core curricula of vocational schools and main training courses for vocational qualifications, while in the Netherlands PVET in small groups was organised for students who lack sufficient digital resources.
Investment in upskilling and reskilling unemployed and redundant workers was recognised as a crucial measure to support job transitions in the recovery and to respond to changes in skills demand brought about by automation, digitalisation and structural change. More than ever, the current crisis has highlighted the importance of developing the skills needed to access various digital tools, including job search and online training.
The current crisis has highlighted the need to strengthen digital skills.
The crisis has highlighted that the continued development of online learning will be crucial: as a result of social distancing policies, digitalisation trends have sharply increased and countries need to invest in digital training and skills.
This means basic but also advanced digital skills: some countries with existing online learning solutions have been able to quickly train workers at all levels and mass open online courses (MOOCs) have been developed in recent months for all sectors around the world.
Basic digital literacy training can enable low-skilled jobseekers to acquire the digital skills that are now required in almost all occupations and which are essential for the job search itself. Many countries have implemented programmes targeting adults with very low ICT literacy.
Among the best practices identified in the OECD survey, Portugal is mentioned for a comprehensive set of digital education programmes that equip its workforce with the skills needed to succeed in the digitalage, Activar.PT. Work with private sector stakeholders to rapidly identify skills gaps and develop accredited training programmes for unemployed young adults and vulnerable groups in a wide range of training opportunities. At the same time, it has put in place a digital guarantee to ensure that by 2023 all unemployed people have a digital training offer commensurate with their level of qualification and qualification profile.
In conclusion, the current crisis situation sees a strong and well-targeted direction on the part of governments to equip the population with the necessary digital skills, as confirmed by the OECD report: “Non-addressing inequality and exclusion is now likely to result in deeper social disparities and have a negative impact on productivity and economic recovery”.
⚠ disclaimer: The text has been automatically translated from the European platform Digital Skills and Jobs. If you have found errors in the text, please contact digikoalice@npi.cz