THE IMPACT OF CHILEAN FRUIT SECTOR DEVELOPMENT ON FEMALE EMPLOYMENT AND HOUSEHOLD INCOME

Modern fruit sector development in Chile led to agricultural employment for women, though usually only as temporary workers and often at a piece rate. Nonetheless, fruit sector employment offered women access to income and personal fulfillment previously lacking. This paper links the fruit sector to improving female and family economic welfare in rural Chile and changing gender relations. Using a unique longitudinal data set, we examine women's decisions regarding labor force participation and employment, their earnings and contributions to household income, and their attitudes toward employment to understand how new opportunities are changing women, their households, and the rural sector.Consumer/Household Economics, Labor and Human Capital,

An update on the forecast of Europe 2020 headline targets on education and training

This technical brief builds on the work undertaken by Dragomirescu-Gaina and Weber (2013), aiming to provide an update to the question whether Europe as a whole and each of its Member States will reach the twofold Europe 2020 target on early leavers from education and training (ELET) and tertiary education attainment (TEA) by 2020JRC.DDG.01-Econometrics and applied statistic

THE DYNAMICS OF INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT IN RURAL CANADA: THE RISK OF POVERTY AND EXCLUSION

Food Security and Poverty, Labor and Human Capital,

SHORT-TERM EMPLOYMENT TRANSITIONS OF THE CANADIAN LABOUR FORCE: RURAL-URBAN DIFFERENCES

Using data from the Canadian Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) for the period 1993-1996, we examine patterns and determinants of labour force transitions of adequately employed and underemployed workers in an attempt to explore whether employment dynamics significantly differ between rural and urban workers so as to disadvantage rural economic performance. The results indicate that rural underemployed workers in Canada are, in the short run (year-to-year transitions) equally likely to enter adequate employment as adequately employed individuals are to enter underemployment. Further, we also found there is weak evidence that education level of rural workers has a lower impact on the probability of moving out of underemployment than in urban areas. In addition rural women are significantly less likely than their male cunterparts and urban workers to enter adeequate employment although the presence of young children does not seem to especially constrain rural women's employment. The results suggest that labour force transition in and out of adequate employment, and particularly underemployment, significantly differ between rural and urban workers and should be taken into account when evaluating employment hardship in rural Canada.Community/Rural/Urban Development, Labor and Human Capital,

The Dynamics of Energy Poverty : Evidence from Spain

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Empleo femenino y su efecto sobre la distribución de la renta familiar en el medio rural

En este artículo se analiza, a partir de datos de una encuesta realizada en 2008 a una muestra de la población rural femenina de Andalucía, los efectos del empleo femenino sobre la distribución de la renta familiar. Los resultados muestran la significativa contribución del salario femenino al conjunto del hogar, contribución que se incrementa de forma especial en los hogares de menores ingresos, lo que confirma la importancia del empleo de la mujer para equilibrar las rentas de en las familias rurales. También se muestra en este trabajo que, a pesar de la aparentemente indiscutible contribución al bienestar de los ingresos de la economía familiar de estas mujeres, su empleo tiende a ser altamente vulnerable/precario, con alto grado de estacionalidad y sin cotizaciones a la Seguridad Social, con las evidentes implicaciones sobre el riesgo de exclusión socialMujeres, género, empleo, sociedad rural, Andalucía, Agricultural and Food Policy, J21, D31.,

Working from Home, COVID-19 and Job Satisfaction

This paper examines the impact of the growth in the incidence of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic on workers' job satisfaction. Using longitudinal data collected in 2019 and 2021 as part of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, fixed-effects models of job satisfaction are estimated. Changes in the share of total weekly work hours usually worked from home are not found to have any significant association with changes in job satisfaction for men. In contrast, a strong significant positive (but non-linear) association is found for women, and this relationship is concentrated on women with children. These findings suggest the main benefit of working from home for workers arises from the improved ability to combine work and family responsibilities, something that matters more to women given they continue to shoulder most of the responsibility for house and care work

Towards an improved adult learning monitoring framework. Revisiting the available data and indicators

Adult education is recognised as an essential driver of economic growth and social development within the European Union and has been a political priority for nearly two decades. It is deemed to play a pivotal role to create better jobs in Europe, improve quality of life and promote individual development, personal fulfillment and active citizenship. A number of Commission initiatives in the recent past have underscored the importance of adult learning. In particular, the European Pillar of Social Rights, proclaimed and signed by the Council of the EU, the European Parliament and the Commission during the Gothenburg Social Summit for fair jobs and growth announced the right to quality and inclusive education, training, and life-long learning as its very first principle. In addition, as part of the Education and Training 2020 (ET2020) strategy, EU Member States have agreed on a common target to increase participation in adult learning in the EU. Fostering adult learning is now more important than ever because of three concurrent factors: technological change, population ageing and global migration flows. Technological change, and in particular automation and digitisation, affecting the world of work by altering or erasing certain tasks, often the most repetitive and standardised, and creating new ones. Adult and learning is essential to ensure that workers, and especially older ones, are equipped with the necessary skills throughout their lifetime, so that they can thrive in a constantly changing labour market. Similarly, in the context of population ageing, adult learning and continuing education become crucial as they can provide older people with the capabilities they need to stay in work well into their sixties and seventies. Finally, adult learning has a central role to play in a context of international migration, since it can be a tool to support the linguistic, social and cultural integration of immigrants. . The "Education and Training 2020" (ET 2020) strategic framework is a crucial tool to monitor participation in adult learning; it set the average participation rate in adult learning at 15% of the population aged 25-64 by 2020. Yet, so far, only a few Member States have reached the benchmark. Furthermore, to underpin the adult learning target and support its monitoring within the European Semester, in 2018 Member States approved a comprehensive framework, developed by the Commission, for benchmarking adult skills and adult learning systems in the EU,. This report aims to reflect on the performance of the existing ET 2020 benchmark on adult participation in learning, by comparing cross-country patterns of participation using different sources of data. In particular, this report provides empirical evidence on participation in adult learning, with a specific focus on different subgroups, such as older people or others belonging to groups that are traditionally excluded from learning, which are identified as a priority by the European Council’s “Renewed European Agenda for Adult Learning” (EEAL). The report also discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the current data source used to create the indicators, i.e. the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) and extended coverage of adult learning in the EU-LFS as of 2022, enabling improved indicators, and further introduces the possibility to create other indicators based on different, complementary data sources, such as the Adult Education Survey (AES), the Continuing Vocational Training Survey (CVTS), the OECD Survey on Adult Skills (PIAAC), and others.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

Indicators for early childhood education and care

The main purpose of this technical brief is to investigate the comparability between two early childhood education and care indicators currently used by the European Commission – namely the Barcelona target and the ET 2020 ECEC benchmark – and to identify methodological differences and common traits that may have implications in their use for policy-making. Results show that, despite being potentially similar measures of participation of children in early childhood education and care in the different countries, they are essentially different in their nature as they cover different groups of individuals. Additionally, the fact that they use different datasets, namely administrative data from UOE and survey data from EU-SILC, implies that they follow diverse data collection protocols; in particular, the use of EU-SILC survey data brings the risk of not having a fully representative sample of the children population; and exposes data to respondent and interviewer’s biases, which further contributes to the existing differences between them. Notwithstanding, results provided in the brief suggest that the different age composition of the two indicators could explain a consistent part of the difference in the overall shares; in the majority of countries, for age groups 4 and 5, numbers are quite similar. Thus, while still taking into account all the caveats explained in this document, we could conclude that for these age groups results could be equally used for policy support. Some suggestions for the improvement of the Barcelona target sub-indicator for the ET 2020 ECEC benchmark within the Joint Assessment Framework are also proposed.JRC.B.4-Human Capital and Employmen

An age-period-cohort approach to disentangling generational differences in family values and religious beliefs: Understanding the modern Australian family today

Background: Over the last few decades, Australian families have undergone profound changes, including fewer marriages, more divorces, and an increase in double-income families, resulting in a qualitative shift in understanding the family today. Objective: This paper investigates whether generational differences in family values and religious beliefs are at the core of changes to the family structure. Methods: Using the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, we apply the Age-Period-Cohort Detrended (APCD) methodology to investigate generational differences in family values and religious beliefs. Results: Results show that changes in family values and religious beliefs are overwhelmingly generational. Cohorts born between 1946 and 1964 (commonly referred to as baby boomers) have significantly contributed to the revolutionary shift in family behaviours and attitudes. Conclusions: The baby boomer generation has played a crucial role in supporting progressive views on marriage, children, gender roles, and religious beliefs. When compared to older and younger cohorts, baby boomers saw the largest shift in family behaviours and attitudes, having matured in a period of rapid economic prosperity and significant social change. The unique events that occurred during their formative years may have influenced these behaviours and attitudes, ultimately contributing to the qualitative shift in the understanding of family. Contribution: Recognising differences between cohorts is essential to our understanding of social change. The APCD models used in this study can detect birth cohort nonlinearities pertaining specifically to the cohort variable. We then search for appropriate explanations of these cohort fluctuations with contextual elements of cohort-specific socialisation and life conditions