Klaus F. Zimmermann

Youth Unemployment and Vocational Training

This paper focuses on the determinants of the labor market situation of young people in developed countries and the developing world, with a special emphasis on the role of vocational training and education policies. We highlight the role of demographic factors, economic growth and labor market institutions in explaining young peoples transition into work. We then assess differences in the setup and functioning of the vocational education and training policies in major world regions, as an important driver of differential labor market situation of youth. Based on our analysis we argue in favor of vocational education and training systems combining work experience and general education and give some policy recommendations regarding the implementation of education and training systems adapted to a countrys economic and institutional context.

Another Economic Miracle? The German Labor Market and the Great Recession

Germany’s labor market responded only mildly to the Great Recession. Important factors for this development include the strong economic position due to recent labor market reforms, the crisis affecting mainly export-oriented companies, the extension of short-time work, time buffers due to working time accounts, the behavior of social partners, and automatic stabilizers. We emphasize the important interaction between short-time work and long-term shortages of skilled workers in sectors particularly affected by the crisis. Although Germany’s experience is in stark contrast to the United States, we identify and discuss common challenges at the center of the future jobs debate.

Youth unemployment in old Europe: the polar cases of France and Germany

France and Germany are two polar cases in the European debate about rising youth unemployment. Similar to what can be observed in Southern European countries, a “lost generation” may arise in France. In stark contrast, youth unemployment has been on continuous decline in Germany for many years, hardly affected by the Great Recession. This paper analyzes the diametrically opposed developments in the two countries to derive policy lessons. As the fundamental differences in youth unemployment primarily result from structural differences in labor policy and in the (vocational) education system, short-term oriented policies do not address the core of the problems. Ultimately, the youth unemployment disease in France and in other European countries has to be cured with structural reforms.JEL codesJ24; J38; J68

Editorial: IZA Journal of Labor Economics

The editors, Pierre Cahuc and V. Joseph Hotz, are pleased to present the IZA Journal of Labor Economics (IZAJOLE), a new online journal that covers research in all areas of labor economics. Labor economics is an ever-expanding field ever expanding into new domains. This Journal provides a venue not only for such traditional labor economic topics as labor supply and demand, discrimination, and earnings and inequality, but also for topics that have attracted more and more of the attention of the field. These include allocation of time and human well-being, the economic role of non-cognitive skills, and the economic impact of various aspects of health on market and non-market activities. By publishing research on these and other topics, the IZA Journal of Labor Economics seeks to further our understanding of these varied and complex issues and to be a major source of information to the scientific and broader communities about the latest developments in this important field within economics.