The OECD Employment Outlook provides an annual assessment of key labour market developments and prospects in OECD member countries. Each edition also contains several chapters focusing on specific aspects of how labour markets function and the implications for policy in order to promote more and better jobs. The 2020 edition is devoted to worker security and the COVID‑19 crisis. Chapter 1 focuses on the labour market consequences of the COVID‑19 outbreak and the resulting economic crisis as well as on the labour market and social policy response. Chapter 2 investigates the uneven access to unemployment benefits for workers in part-time and less stable jobs, which often accentuates the hardship they face in times of crisis. Chapter 3 provides a comparative review of employment protection legislation (EPL) across OECD countries by developing a new version of the OECD EPL indicators. Chapter 4 takes a fresh look at job polarisation, and in particular the hollowing out of jobs in middle-skill occupations. Finally, Chapter 5 examines the changing labour market outcomes for middle-educated vocational education and training graduates.
The OECD Employment Outlook 2020 is the joint work of staff of the Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs. The whole Outlook has also greatly benefited from comments from other OECD directorates and contributions from national government delegates. However, its assessments of each country’s labour market prospects do not necessarily correspond to those made by the national authorities concerned.
This report was edited by Andrea Bassanini, and is based on contributions from Andrea Garnero and Sebastian Königs (Chapter 1), Horacio Levy (Chapter 2), Oliver Denk and Alexandre Georgieff (Chapter 3), Andrew Green (Chapter 4), and Glenda Quintini, Marieke Vandeweyer and Annelore Verhagen (Chapter 5). Chapter 5 was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union. The highlights (published separately) and the infographics are based on contributions from Emily Farchy and Alastair Wood, respectively. Pascal Marianna was responsible for the statistical annex. Specific contributions were provided by Willem Adema, Sandrine Cazes, Michele Cecchini, Chris Clarke, Jonas Fluchtmann, Paul Grass, Alexander Hijzen, Raphaela Hyee, Herwig Immervoll, Kristine Langenbucher, Anne Lauringson, Duncan MacDonald, Thomas Manfredi, Luca Marcolin, Maria Mecenero, Veerle Miranda, Marissa Plouin, Christopher Prinz, Olga Rastrigina, Andrea Salvatori, Angelica Salvi del Pero, Maëlle Stricot, Shunta Takino, Stefan Thewissen, Chloé Touzet, Theodora Xenogiani and Natasha Yokoyama. Statistical assistance was provided by Sébastien Martin, Agnès Puymoyen and Dana Blumin. Editorial assistance was provided by Natalie Corry, Liv Gudmundson, Lucy Hulett, and Niamh Kinane.