Upcoming Labor Market Challenges

We would like to thank everyone who lectured, presented, discussed, exhibited and, above all, organised on site. Here you can see some pictures from the conference.

Upcoming Labor Market Challenges

Demographic change and aging workforces, continuing rapid technological transformations, and the ever-more visible consequences of the climate crisis confront our economies and labor markets, which are already suffering from a shortage of labor. Women have made great progress in the labor market, but they still do not make full use of their labor market potential. Geopolitical conflicts and international divisions impact upon trade possibly reducing the international division of labor and inciting migration, and populism and political polarization obstruct efficient decision-making. These developments impose exceptional challenges for our economies and, in particular, our labor markets.

The keynotes at this conference address these issues, focusing on three core subjects: Regional inequalities, the role of women in the labor market, and immigration. Held by leading scholars in the field, the speakers will discuss the latest research and assess different policy approaches.

Jessica Pan (NUS Singapore) starts from the observation of persistent gender gaps in the labor market, which are all the more puzzling as women are now increasingly more educated than men and better prepared for the labor market than ever before. She focuses on how children affect women’s careers, and provides new evidence on how continuing disadvantage through childbirth impacts on aggregate gender inequality.

David Card (UC Berkeley, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics) takes a tour on the role of firms in the labor market. Linked employer-employee data allow to quantify the persistent wage differences between firms which play a crucial role for wage inequality. Using this approach, he then addresses pay differences between cities, the effects of job displacement and issues in wage bargaining.

Christian Dustmann (University College London and RF Berlin) discusses the effects immigration has on the economy, the challenges of measurement, and how immigration impacts on the policy discourse.

These and other issues will also be taken up by a policy panel that includes policy makers and academic policy advisors, with a focus on labor market challenges in the German-speaking countries. Moreover, various more specific labor market themes will be addressed by several more policy-oriented panels.