Labour force flexibility and skills mobility

1
Labour force flexibilityand skills mobility
right person, right skills,right place, right
time

• Anne GreenIER, University of Warwick
• A.E.Green_at_warwick.ac.uk

2
Scope of presentation

• Context
• What is a healthy labour market?
• Regional and sub-regional variations in-
  quantity and quality of employment- demand and
  supply
• Skill shortages and gaps
• Skill utilisation
• Mobility- migration- commuting
• Implications

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Context

• Shift in concerns from quantity to quality
• Greater emphasis on demand
• Concern with stocks and flows
• Labour market change
• Decrease in unemployment
• Concerns about inactivity and concentration in
  particular sub-groups and areas
• Rise in employment ? tightening labour markets
• Matching supply and demand issues of mobility
  and accessibility
• Skills as a key driver of regional
  competitiveness (within context of overall
  regional development)

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Healthy labour market concept

• Goal a labour market which produces desirable
  results, both socially and economically, and
  which is sustainable over time
• 3 dimensions
• strong DEMAND side in terms of quantity and
  balance /quality of jobs that the labour market
  generates
• strong SUPPLY side relates to the numbers and
  characteristics of people able to take those jobs
• efficient and equitable FUNCTIONING to bring
  together demand and supply sides of the labour
  market
• appropriate supporting conditions education,
  training, workforce development, benefits and
  welfare, housing and transport infrastructure

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Mobility, flexibility and balancescope for
tension

• Mobility and flexibility
• Healthy labour market emphasises movement up the
  skills and value chain
• Implies existence of progression routes
• Need for flexibility to adjust to change but
  how much?
• Fine dividing line between healthy and
  unhealthy mobility and flexibility

• Balance
• Job opportunities at all levels
• Success in one part of the labour market not
  achieved at the expense of another part
  geographical dimension
• Imbalance can be healthy as well as
  unhealthy it may be a driver of desirable
  change

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of employment in K1-K4 categories(source LFS,
2004 via emda)
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Employment rates, 25-49 yearsHighly qualified
No qualifications
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Skill deficiencies Skills utilisation
(NESS, 2003)

• Issues of interpretation
• Typology of regions on skills deficiencies
• YH and WMgt average skills vacancies gt average
  non-employment
• EM, E, SE and SWgt average vacancies lt average
  non-employment
• L, NE and NW
• lt average vacancies gt average non-employment

• under-education
• over-education
• signalling function of qualifications
• do industries / employers have capacity to absorb
  and utilise high level skills?
• are high level skills used effectively?
• move on up to create openings for others

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Role of mobility

• right person, right skills, right place, right
  time implies occupational, industrial and
  geographical flexibility and mobility
• jobs to people and/or people to jobs?
• MIGRATION and COMMUTING- brain drain (training
  for export?)- brain strain- skills circulation
• competing for skills context of tighter labour
  market, ageing population, lower fertility,
  international migration
• What is the capacity for mobility in the labour
  market?
• What are the constraints on mobility?

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Understanding migration in the UK

• The Greater South East is the motor of the UK
  economy and the driver of the UK migration system
  
• An escalator region it offers the largest
  quantity and greatest range of employment
  opportunities (particularly higher level
  occupations) in the UK
• London attracts young people at the start of
  their careers from the rest of the UK and loses
  population to all other regions except in the
  20-29 age group
• It attracts full-time workers
• It attracts international migrants from all
  parts of the world (global reach)

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Migration of 20-29 year olds, 2000-2001(source
2001 Census)
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International migrationtowards a managed
migration policy

• Role of migration in addressing labour market
  deficiencies
• migrants over-represented at both ends of the
  skills hierarchy- highly skilled - less
  skilled
• refugees and asylum seekers
• skills utilisation evidence for occupational
  downgrading
• labour market integration

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Competing for people and skillsthe example of
Fresh Talent (Scotland)

• Countering population loss through
• retaining home-grown talent
• encouraging Scots who have moved away to return
• attracting new people to Scotland

• Policies
• closer working with Work Permits UK
• visa extensions for students staying after
  graduation
• support to universities in recruitment
• improving visitor impressions
• establishment of relocation advice service

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Fresh Talent (Scotland)questions and issues

• Welcoming all comers?
• Do migrants go where you want them to go?- the
  success and attractiveness of Edinburgh- is it
  desirable/possible to create other magnets?
• Importance of non-economic (environment, leisure,
  schools, etc) as well as economic factors
• Limits to the role of interventions at Scotland
  level- UK level policy (e.g. Home Office on
  immigration)- Scotland tied into UK migration
  system

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Commuting

• trend to longer flows, but most commutes are
  short distance
• local areas play different roles - characterised
  by- high in-commuting- high out-commuting-
  transit camps high in- and out-commuting-
  relatively high self-containment levels
• complexity of commuting flows in some areas
• sub-group differences

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Constrained mobility

• Spatial barriers to employment
• physical accessibility especially in 24/7
  economy
• social information flows, social divisions,
  perceptions
• bounded rationality unwillingness to venture
  into terra incognita (mental maps)
• labour market opportunities may be restricted
  because jobs in accessible yet unfamiliar
  locations are not considered

• Permeability of spatial labour markets
• job growth does not necessarily trickle down to
  local residents even if local residents have
  the required skills higher-skilled workers can
  bump down in the labour market and compete for
  lower-skilled jobs processes of mobility and job
  competition leave behind the weakest

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Example of workforce mobilityin
construction(from IFF with University of
Warwick)
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Workers in London where from originally
30 from outside UK
4
5
5
1
3
2
7
3
14
26
1
Base 993 workers on sites in London 30 from
outside the UK
19
Workers in NE where from originally
0 from outside UK
1
91
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
Base 378 workers on sites in NE
20
of workers on sites in region with permanent
residence in same region
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Construction workers living in temporary
accommodation

• Reasons given
• No / little work in home area (27 nationwide,
  more often cited by workers on sites in London)
• Sent by company (27 nationwide)
• Better pay (21 nationwide, more often cited by
  workers on sites in London)
• Better job opportunities (11 nationwide, more
  often cited by workers in London)

• 8 of construction workers live in temporary
  accommodation but ranges from
• 19 in London of whom 67 have permanent
  address elsewhere in England, 10 in Scotland, 7
  in Wales, 16 outside UK (4 Irish Republic)
• 9-10 in NW, SW and N Ireland
• lt 4 in NE and YH

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Implications

• Creating a healthy labour market
• vision of the desired result
• processes that might bring about that result
• how processes may be influenced by intervention
  scope and limitations of regional-level
  intervention
• importance of advancement in work
• capacity for mobility

• Possible policy interventions
• public procurement
• cluster policy
• role of public sector
• Inter- and intra-regional disparities
• use of ratio measures and floor targets - for
  geographical / sub-group differences and setting
  minimum standards