The UK’s flexible labour market has led to employment levels that are the envy of Europe and the US, according to new research.
However, the annual Employment Outlook report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) claims that countries across the world urgently need to get more people into paid employment if they want to boost living standards.
They can do this by moving away from policies that discourage people from working by doing more to improve workers’ skills, the report said.
The UK came seventh out of 30 OECD countries in terms of employment levels, with 74% of the working age population having jobs.
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John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said this demonstrated that economic flexibility could go hand in hand with social progress.
