labor
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China: what’s next? Unemployment
China is facing rising labor costs, relatively low productivity growth and competition from other developing countries. While the trade dispute with the U.S. provides Beijing with a scapegoat, the true causes of the dilemma lie in the past policy. If Chinese consumers lose confidence in their economy, a crisis could rapidly arise.
Vocational lessons from Germany and France
Germany is praised as a model of vocational training, with youth unemployment of just over 6 percent. France, where 22 percent of young people don’t have jobs, has long known that its own vocational education system needs fixing. A comparison of how these two great European economies prepare pupils to ...
Opinion: Will immigration sink the EU?
The EU risks implosion over the issue of immigration. At the root of the problem is its inability to integrate poorly educated, low-skilled individuals into workforces, and to sanction criminal behavior effectively. Introducing measures to help debureaucratize labor markets, reform education and punish criminals would help solve preexisting problems that ...
Limits on posting workers create Europe’s high-cost cartels
European Union labor ministers have just agreed to a proposal that could see more protectionist measures implemented across the bloc. The new rules would limit employers’ flexibility how much they pay “posted” workers – employees from a different EU member state. Until now, posting workers added needed competition to the ...
Argentina’s president looks for easy midterm wins
Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri is coming to terms with reality after promising a “transformational” government when he took power in early 2016. No shower of foreign investment or gas revenue has materialized, leaving him with a scaled-back philosophy of “gradualism” and fiscal austerity. Given this dour choice, Mr. Macri has ...
