labor

The statistics describing the condition of the world economy three months after the lockdowns seem reassuring: We have not had a V-shaped recovery but GDP growth in the second part of 2020 appears to be firming up and predictions for 2021 are optimistic. However, trouble is brewing in labor markets. 

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 ...

With the Yellow Vest protests, France has finally fractured between its metropolitan areas and a resentful low-wage periphery. What started as a tax revolt has become a diffuse and unstructured uprising against an unaccountable ruling caste. Many of the movement’s demands would only perpetuate France’s administrative and social centralism, yet ...

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 ...