News & Press

‘I was taking part in a panel discussion at a recent conference. We were talking about the highlights of the event for us and invited the audience to join in. I was then rather surprised when we were asked whether Human Resources was the right name for the function and was it really an improvement on Personnel as a description. ..'

The profile of rural employment differs from that in urban areas in some significant respects. Rural businesses tend to be smaller, employ different kinds of staff and are more likely to operate in different parts of the economy to urban businesses.

It is nothing new that in difficult times, public attitudes to migration harden, as migrants are increasingly seen as competing with native workers for limited jobs and public resources. Public attitudes to the recent migration from Eastern Europe have been no exception to this and the UK government has taken this further by considering an annual cap of 75,000 to all EU migration.

Work during study is a common experience for around half of all students. Recent IES research examines this issue in some detail, looking at what motivates students to do this, the kind of work they do, and what they gain from this.

The past five years have been extremely challenging in economic terms in the European Union, with public sector financial constraints and austerity measures having a massive impact on the labour market in many countries. Many individual businesses have been suffering in this climate and have tried to remain competitive by restructuring, usually involving the shedding of labour.

Although there has been a policy focus on addressing under-representation in apprenticeships, particularly by gender,1 over many years, achieving progress on the inclusion of women and ethnic minorities has proved challenging. For example, gender segregation cuts across ethnic and cultural identifies, and ethnicity can compound the impact of occupational gender segregation. We look at the issues, drawing on recent IES research.