Taking a place-based approach to employment and skills strategies

By Jonathan Barr. Across the OECD, efforts are being taken to boost overall growth and investment. A skilled workforce represents a key marketing chip for local economies to attract investment and opportunity. However, efforts to boost job creation and employment can be undermined by potential skills mismatches or situations of low-skills equilibrium at the local level, which can be a trap that negatively impacts growth and the productive capacity of local economies (Job Creation and Local Economic Development, OECD, 2014). When the overall level of skills is low and employers operate on a business model that emphasises standard production and/or poor quality work, there are limited incentives to update skills or move to high-value-added strategies. More...