HIGHLIGHTS

Labour Market Projections
Futureskills sets out the key issues between now and 2014.
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The Scottish Executive’s Scottish Economic Report
Skills and Scotland's Economy: Help or Hindrance?

Futureskills Scotland article, published in June 2006, by Stephen Boyle and Patrick Watt. The paper examines the evidence, and finds that it points clearly to the conclusion that the supply of labour and appropriate skills are not a leading constraint on economic performance, although there are a number of clearly identifiable improvements to aspects of labour supply that could boost growth.
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Industry Profiles for the Highlands and Islands
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Futureskills Scotland User Survey 2006
Results of the 2006 Futureskills Scotland user survey have been published.
Click here to view them.

Futureskills Scotland research on skill shortages
Featured recently in The Sunday Herald.
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Futureskills to research into the labour market effects of  qualifications
Futureskills Scotland have commissioned two leading academics in this field, Professor Ian Walker, from the Universities of Warwick and Princeton, and Yu Zhu, from the University of Kent, to investigate this topic. The resulting research will be available early in 2007, and will be featured in a forthcoming edition of this newsletter. The Scottish Executive and the Scottish Funding Councils are advising on the project.

Coming soon - the 2006 Scottish Employer Skills Survey
The fieldwork for the 2006 Scottish Employer Skills Survey is now complete and the results are being analysed. The findings, to be published in a new report entitled Skills in Scotland 2006 towards the end of this year, will be featured in the next issue of this newsletter.

What’s new on Research Online
Research Online provides easier access to thousands of research reports from Scotland, the rest of the UK and beyond on labour market research.

Reports added to Research Online recently include:

• Talk on trial: job interviews, language and ethnicity
  This report investigates discourse between job interviewers and candidates to determine if ethnic minority candidates and candidates born abroad are disadvantaged by culturally specific practices, and makes recommendations on how to reduce disadvantages for ethnic minorities in selection interviews for low paid, manual or services jobs.

• Who's afraid of labour market flexibility?
  Explores the assumptions behind the case for labour market "flexibility" and provides a critical assessment of current policies. It goes on to draw some lessons for UK labour market policy and considers whether an "Anglo-social model" is really emerging.

• ICT skill supply in the UK and Germany: how firms cope with skill supply challenges
  Compares the supply of information and communication technology (ICT) skills in the UK and Germany from higher education and apprenticeship streams.  Assesses the relative impact of these streams on companies in the two countries, and also assesses the merits and demerits of both systems.

Click here to visit Research Online and search the database of reports.

The economic activity rate
In each edition, we highlight a labour market indicator, and tell you a bit more about it. This issue, we focus on the economic activity rate.
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Next issue: skill shortage rate