The CIPD’s latest quarterly Labour Market Outlook report has revealed that a quarter of organisations who are struggling to fill vacancies plan to use automation. The figure has nearly doubled since last summer, when just 13% reported considering using automation to plug gaps – an increase the CIPD attributed to the rise of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT in the past year. The survey of 2,000 employers saw four in 10 predict that AI and automation could increase productivity and efficiency, with a third anticipating cost savings and a fifth expecting enhanced decision making. However, 36% of employers see privacy and security concerns as the main drawback for implementing generative AI in their workplace. This particularly evident among employers who have banned its use. The report also uncovered the extent of shortages in the workforce, finding that as many as 41% of employers had ‘hard to fill’ vacancies. This figure stood at 51% in the public sector, compared to 38% in the private sector.
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Demographics
The McKinsey Health Institute’s 2023 survey of more than 30,000 employees across 30 countries found that employees who had positive work experiences reported better holistic health, are more innovative at work, and have improved job performance. Holistic health is an integrated view of an individual’s mental, physical, spiritual and social functioning. While it was found that more than half of the surveyed employees have positive overall holistic health, there are substantial variations between countries and age groups, with those aged 18-24 having the lowest holistic-health scores. Workplace enablers such as meaningful work and psychological safety are shown to strongly predict good holistic health, but burnout is closely linked to workplace stressors. The report concludes by offering organisational, team, job, and individual interventions strategies for employers that address demands and enablers to boost overall employee holistic health.
This report from the CIPD sets the context of longstanding megatrends impacting the UK’s world of work, arguing that skills development policy is the key policy lever needed in response. It compares and summarises current labour market and skills challenges across the four nations as well as employer approaches to training and provides an overview of key public policy developments. Skills and labour shortages continue to impact employers across all four nations and virtually all sectors of the economy. In addition to this, skills gaps, mismatches and underutilisation point to persistent inefficiencies between the labour market and the skills development system. The second half of the report focuses on apprenticeship systems which have seen the biggest evolution and divergence since 2017.
This report from IBEC explores key pay and HR trends in Irish workplaces, finding that 82% of businesses are planning to increase pay in 2024 with an average increase of 3.8%. The report highlights the following top five HR priorities identified by employers: learning and development (66%), leadership development (65%), performance management (61%), talent strategy and business alignment (59%), talent acquisition (54%).
The OECD’s latest International Migration Outlook report explores recent developments in migration movements and the labour market inclusion of immigrants in OECD countries. The report reveals that permanent migration to OECD countries reached a record high of 6.1 million in 2022, marking a 26% increase from 2021. It cites rising labour migration as one contributing factor, as migrant workers have helped lower labour and skills shortages in OECD countries.
This year’s edition also includes a special focus on the labour market integration of migrant mothers and fertility patterns among migrant populations.
Recent research from CBI, in partnership with Pertemps, reveals that 71% of UK businesses have been hit by labour shortages in the last 12 months and 77% of businesses believe access to skills threatens the UK’s current labour market competitiveness.
This report from Generation and the OECD analyses existing data and the results from an eight-country survey of employers, job seekers, and employees in Europe and the US. It finds that employers who would hire from the 45-64 age group are in the minority, with the length of a candidate’s experience not being a significant factor in interview decisions. Additionally, 70% of employers believe individuals over 45 struggle to adapt to technological advances. Notwithstanding this, most employers indicated that their existing employees aged 45+ performed as well as or better than their younger colleagues and learnt at a similar or faster pace. The report concludes by laying out 13 recommendations for employers, policy makers, and midcareer and older individuals to enable an intergenerational workforce.
This report from the Oxford Martin School explores the remote revolution, finding a robust relationship between the increase in remote work and cities with a lower cost of living. It notes that job creation since the computer revolution of the 1980s was highly concentrated to a few supercities resulting in a marked increase in regional inequality. However, a surge in collaborative technology during the pandemic has facilitated remote work as jobs shift to secondary hubs and locations where housing and labour is cheaper. The report explores the implications of this new geography of work, including a reduction in regional inequality within countries, intensification of competition for talent around the world, and an increase in total welfare for the average worker via lower cost-of-living and less commuting.
McKinsey’s ninth Women in the Workplace report reveals some hard-fought gains at the top, with women’s representation in the C-suite at the highest it’s ever been. However, it notes that with lagging progress in the middle of the pipeline – and a persistent underrepresentation of women of colour – true parity remains painfully out of reach. The survey debunks four myths about women’s workplace experiences and career advancement, including those relating to their career ambitions, the greatest barrier to their ascent to leadership, the effect and extent of microaggressions in the workplace, and women’s appetite for flexible work. The report concludes by providing clear solutions that organisations can implement to make meaningful progress toward gender equality.
In this report, James Davies, Employment Partner at Lewis Silkin LLP, explores the possibility that, by 2050, economies like the UK will face a labour market with too few jobs for the available workers. Rapid advances in technology are converging with other significant drivers of change to transform the world of work. Delving down into the work and occupations of today, this report considers the factors which could increase or decrease jobs in different sectors over the next quarter of a century. The impact of this transformation will depend on decisions made, and actions taken, over the next few years. This report identifies the decisions and actions which will need to be addressed and brings together insights from a variety of sources to offer a glimpse of that future.