Research in Public Policy issue 8

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In this recession can anything be done to avoid the permanent ‘scarring’ that past UK recessions inflicted on many young people as they found themselves facing long-term unemployment? Paul Gregg examines the evidence on the employment effects of active labour market policies that include work experience, and draws lessons for the design of the proposed Job Guarantee. Gregg’s independent report on welfare reform, delivered to the Department for Work and Pensions last December, set out his vision for ‘personalised conditionality and support’, where virtually everyone claiming benefits and not in work should be looking for or engaging in activity to help them move towards employment.

This bulletin also features the following articles:

• Social mobility and the professions - Lindsey Macmillan
• Are league tables any use for choosing schools? - George Leckie and Harvey Goldstein - (WP 09/208) / (Podcast)
• Welfare reform: outcomes for lone mothers and their children - Paul Gregg, Susan Harkness and Sarah Smith
• In-work tax credits: the impact on employment and divorce rates - Marco Francesconi and colleagues
• Job Guarantee: evidence and design - Paul Gregg
• Offshoring low-skill jobs? The effects of outward investment into low-wage economies - Helen Simpson (WP 08/207)
• Earnings mobility in Europe - Paul Gregg and Claudia Vittori - (WP 08/206)
• Contracting out welfare-to-work: lessons from the Netherlands - Pierre Koning responds.