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This paper critically reviews the growing literature on the relationship between India’s supposedly ‘restrictive’ labour laws and poor performance on a range of industrial and social indicators. I first summarize the main claims of this literature, and the construction of the indices that it uses to measure inter-state differences in labour regulation. I show, on the basis of a detailed textual analysis of the relevant laws, that the original authors made multiple errors in coding the legal provisions, and that later contributors to the literature misinterpreted the resulting indices as measures of labour market flexibility. I then highlight some econometric issues that undermine their findings, and the difficulties involved in replicating their analyses with a ‘corrected’ and updated indicator. In the course of this discussion, I briefly describe some very recent changes in the labour laws. I go on to point out some flaws in recent papers: they inaccurately capture the employment thresholds at which different sections of the law become applicable; they ignore reasons other than labour regulations for why firms choose to stay small; and they ignore other forms of flexible employment while creating a misleading dichotomy between contract workers and ‘permanent’ workers. I conclude by summarizing evidence of growing de facto flexibility in Indian industry and deteriorating labour market outcomes for workers, without any de jure changes in the regulatory framework.

This paper highlights an inherent contradiction that exists within investment promotion activities in rich countries. Since the financial crisis, many inward investment agencies have shifted their activities from job creation per se to seeking to attract investment in high-tech activities. Such knowledge-intensive sectors are engaged in what has become referred to as “the war for talent”, so locations need to understand their value proposition to firms, especially where labour is tight. This paper explores the implications of this, in terms of the impact on employment and earnings of high skilled labour. We show that, because skill shortages already exist in many of these sectors, seeking to attract inward investment in these sectors simply causes the earnings of such workers to be bid up, and employment in the incumbent sector to fall. We highlight the over-riding importance that firms place on the availability of skilled labour when determining locations, and how policies which promote labour market flexibility, particularly through investment in skills to address skill shortages, can significantly mitigate the adverse effects, which tend to be more keenly felt in poorer regions of Europe where skilled labour is in even shorter supply.

Research Question: The aim of this paper is to construct a numerical measure of EPL which takes into consideration the implementation of legislation and employment structure. Motivation: It is recognized in the literature that in countries with a significant share of the shadow economy the labour market flexibility is de facto higher than the original EPL index based on de iure conditions implies. Since the sub-index which refers to the workers with permanent contracts has the largest weight in the EPL index calculation, taking into consideration the share of workers with regular contracts in total employment would give a clearer picture about the real influence of individual sub-indices. Idea: For international comparisons of de iure strictness of the employment protection legislation, we use the latest official OECD data on EPL index and its sub-indices. The OECD data for Serbia shows only the values for EPR, EPC and EPRC sub-indices. After calculation of EPT sub-index and EPL index for Serbia, three adjusted indices are developed in order to capture the effective (i.e., de facto) strictness of the employment protection legislation in different countries. Data: The analysis was based on the latest available official OECD data on the EPL indices (2012 to 2015, depending on a country). For the calculation of missing sub-indices for Serbia, the main source of information was the Labour Law. Data on shadow economy are based on Krstic et al. (2013) and Schneider (2016), while the data regarding employment structure stem from Labour Force Surveys. Tools: Calculation of EPT and EPL indices was conducted in accordance with the official OECD methodology for calculating summary indicators of EPL strictness. The methodology for calculation of adjusted indices is developed on the initial basis of the previous research from Berger et al. (2016), Eamets & Paas (2007a), Boeri & van Ours (2008), Rutkowski & Scarpetta (2005) and Jandric (2014). Findings: The analysis was performed for 26 European countries. Rankings of European countries according to de facto strictness of the employment protection legislation differ significantly from the rankings made upon de iure strictness of the EPL. De facto external numerical flexibility of the labour market in Serbia is higher than when measured by the original unadjusted indices. Contribution: The main contribution of the paper is the development of the method for international comparisons of EPL, which provides a way to distinguish between de facto and de iure rigidity of employment protection legislation.

This paper deals with the role of the labor market in moderating the growth-effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries. FDI has developed rapidly and become the main source of economic growth in developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of labor market flexibility in mediating the impact of FDI on economic growth in developing countries. Panel threshold regression analysis proposed by Hansen (1999) is employed to assess the hypothesis of the study. Findings/Originality : The results provide the empirical finding of the role labor market in moderating the growth effect of FDI in developed and developing countries and fill this gap by assessing the role of labor market flexibility as an absorptive capacity in FDI-growth link in developing countries.

This paper critically reviews the growing literature on the relationship between India’s supposedly ‘restrictive’ labour laws and poor performance on a range of industrial and social indicators. I first summarize the main claims of this literature, and the construction of the indices that it uses to measure inter-state differences in labour regulation. I show, on the basis of a detailed textual analysis of the relevant laws, that the original authors made multiple errors in coding the legal provisions, and that later contributors to the literature misinterpreted the resulting indices as measures of labour market flexibility. I then highlight some econometric issues that undermine their findings, and the difficulties involved in replicating their analyses with a ‘corrected’ and updated indicator. In the course of this discussion, I briefly describe some very recent changes in the labour laws. I go on to point out some flaws in recent papers: they inaccurately capture the employment thresholds at which different sections of the law become applicable; they ignore reasons other than labour regulations for why firms choose to stay small; and they ignore other forms of flexible employment while creating a misleading dichotomy between contract workers and ‘permanent’ workers. I conclude by summarizing evidence of growing de facto flexibility in Indian industry and deteriorating labour market outcomes for workers, without any de jure changes in the regulatory framework.

Overeducation describes the situation whereby workers are located in jobs for which they are deemed overqualified. This paper examines patterns in overeducation between countries using a specifically designed panel data set constructed from the quarterly Labour Force Surveys of 28 EU countries over a 12- to 15-year period. It is not the case that overeducation has been rising rapidly over time in all countries, and where overeducation has grown, the trend has been very gradual. Furthermore, overeducation rates were found to be static or falling in approximately 50% of the 28 EU countries. The evidence points towards convergence in overeducation at a rate of 3.3% per annum. In terms of the determinants of overeducation we find evidence to support policies aimed at improving effective female participation, labour market flexibility and the practical aspects of educational provision as a means of reducing the incidence of overeducation within countries.

The unemployment rate in Estonia rose sharply in 2010 to one of the highest levels in the EU, after the country entered a severe recession in 2008. While the rate declined relatively rapidly in 2011, it remained high especially for the less educated. In 2009, the Employment Contract Law relaxed employment protection legislation and sought to raise income protection of the unemployed to facilitate transition from less to more productive jobs while mitigating social costs. Utilizing a search model, this paper shows that increasing further labour market flexibility through reducing the tax wedge on labour would facilitate the structural transformation and reduce the long-term unemployment rate. Linking increases in unemployment benefits to participation in job search or training programmes would improve the unemployed workers’ incentives to search for jobs or retrain and the medium term labour market outcomes. Social protection schemes for the unemployed should be also strengthened as initially intended to give the unemployed sufficient time to search for adequate jobs or retrain for new opportunities.

This paper examines the prevalence of non-standard workers in EU-28, rules for accessing social security, and these workers’ risk of not being able to access it. It focuses on temporary and part-time workers, and the self-employed, and offers a particularly detailed analysis of their access to unemployment benefits. It focuses on eligibility, adequacy (net income replacement rates) and identifies those workers which are at the greatest risk of either not receiving benefits or receiving low benefits. It offers a special overview of foreign non-standard workers, who may be particularly vulnerable due to the absence of citizenship in the host country. The paper also analyses access to maternity and sickness benefits for these three groups of workers, as well as their access to pensions. Its key contribution is in bringing together the different dimensions of disadvantage that non-standard workers face vis-a-vis access to social protection. This allows us to comprehensively assess the adaptation of national social security systems across EU-28 to the changing world of work over the past 10 years. The paper shows that there is a lot of variation between the Member States, both in the structure of their social security systems, as well as the prevalence of non-standard work. Most notably, the paper concludes that: i) access to unemployment benefits is the most challenging component of welfare state provision for people in non-standard employment; ii) policy reforms vis-a-vis access to social benefits have improved the status of non-standard workers in several countries, while they have worsened it in others, particularly in Bulgaria, Ireland and Latvia; iii) some Eastern European countries can offer lessons to other Member States due to their experiences with labour market challenges during transition and the subsequent adaptations of their social security systems to greater labour market flexibility. The paper also implies that a country’s policy towards non- standard work cannot be examined in isolation from its labour market conditions, as well as its growth model, and that uniform policy solutions for non-standard work cannot be applied across EU-28.

This paper explores the relationship between globalization and the decline in union density, as well as analysing the relation between these two variables conditioned on labour market flexibility. The argument is that globalization affected the decline in union density and that the effects of this mechanism might vary due to labour market flexibility. Labour market flexibility that includes increased uncertainty of job positions and more flexible employment contracts made it harder for labour to organize successfully. By applying OLS regression I came up with the results that globalization negatively affects union density, but this relationship is mitigated by the lower level of labour market flexibility. The structure of the paper proceeds as follows: in the first part I revise existing literature and offer a theoretical framework. The next part relates to methodology and empirical approach. The last part consists of a discussion, limitations and concluding remarks.

In this paper the authors present a new, extended approach, involving collaboration strategies between public employment services and private companies, which were under implementation in 2015 in Aarhus (Denmark). The main thesis of the paper is that the cooperation of public labour market institutions with labour demand representaives is crucial in realisation of active labour market policy. The Danish labour market policy is based on the flexicurity model that combines the flexibility of employment assisted by employment security assured by both, developed active labour market programmes and a rationalized system of benefits. The authors also propose some reccommendations for Poland in the area of boosting cooperation between public employment services and business representatives following the Danish example. The research method was the analysis of secondary data, such as literature overview, as well as strategies and reports made on behalf of the Jobcenter Aarhus.

Economic integration is generally thought to favour convergence in the economic performance of previously separated regions; but this is far from universally true, as the experience of the members of the Eurozone testifies. The paper considers the two sharply contrasting cases of East and West German convergence following reunification and the enduring poverty of the Italian Mezzogiorno since Italian unification a century and a half ago. In both countries, political integration delivers much higher consumption in the lagging relative to the leading region than of per capita GDP. Consumption convergence can be supported by transfers but ‘production’ convergence ultimately requires catch-up in the production of tradeables. The paper demonstrates the radically different performance of the tradeable sector in the two cases, and suggests that this may be the result of differences in labour market flexibility, in investment performance and in the social norms required for the production of complex manufacturing.

This paper makes use of a natural experiment to examine effects of potential capital losses and general attractiveness of pension schemes on employees' propensity to change jobs. On January 1st 2004, the two largest pension funds in the Netherlands, for civil servants and for the health care sector, changed their pension scheme from a final salary to an average salary. This industry-level change excludes the possibility that a negative correlation between having a job with an attractive pension scheme and the number of labour market transitions is driven by self-selection of workers into jobs with an attractive pension arrangement. Using individual data covering the entire Dutch population, we estimate discrete choice models for job-to-job transitions. The results show that the number of job transitions of civil servants significantly increased at the onset of the new pension rules. The changing pension rules affected the propensity to change jobs for individuals working in the health care sector only to a smaller extent.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed knowledge about the relationship between the inter-firm job mobility and the occupational transitions in Spain during the last years. In particular, it is tested whether if the type of job-to-job mobility (voluntary or involuntary) has some influence on the workers careers. The empirical analysis is based on panel data provided by the Living Condition Survey, which is conducted by the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE). The period analysed covers the years between 2005 and 2010 (both inclusive), what allows observing the labour mobility patterns in the recent Spanish economic crisis. Design/methodology/approach – The econometric specification used to analyse occupational mobility corresponds to a random effect panel multinomial logit model. The econometric model is estimated separately for workers that have remained at the same firm and for workers who have changed firms; for the latter group, a dummy variable indicating whether the individual quit or was laid off is included as a regressor. Findings – The results derived from the estimates of the econometric specifications show that individuals who voluntarily leave a firm find the decision has a positive effect on their careers, as their probability of upward occupational mobility is more than 90 per cent higher than for individuals who leave their previous position as a result of having been laid off. Social implications – This result is an argument in favour of adopting active labour market policies that help improve information flows in the labour market and allow workers a better understanding of potential job offers from outside firms. Originality/value – This paper analyses the relationship between inter-firm mobility and occupational transitions that has not yet addressed in the economic literature for Spain.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper, with an organisational focus, is to offer a novel examination of the association between workforce nationality composition and workplace flexibility practices (WFPs), an under-researched topic with high potential benefits at microeconomic and macroeconomic level. Design/methodology/approach – British data are used, as the UK has experienced significant immigrant flows and has a relatively high level of labour market flexibility. The Workplace Employee Relations Survey 2011, sampling 2,500 British workplaces, offers for the first time data on workforce nationality. Via zero-inflated regressions, the number of non-UK nationals employed in a workplace is assessed against a wide range of numerical, functional and cost WFPs. Findings – There are significant links between WFPs and the employment of non-UK nationals, and these are distinct for non-UK nationals from the European Economic Area (EEA) when compared to non-UK nationals from outside the EEA. The former are more likely to be in “good” employment, with job security, working from home, job autonomy and training. Yet, both types of non-UK nationals are more likely to be employed in workplaces making high use of causal contracts. The implications of these results are discussed. Originality/value – The paper addresses the need to research migration from a relatively new perspective of WFPs while also taking into account the diversity of non-UK nationals. The topic is of importance to organisations, as well as to labour market and migration policymakers. Timely results are of value in view of heightened interest in migration.

This paper examines the growth rate volatility of European regions’ per capita GDP from 1992 to 2008. We measure the regional volatility using a new methodology based on Markov matrices, and investigate its main determinants. Volatility displays a geographical pattern and a significant spatial dependence. Output composition appears one of the main drivers of volatility; among the other determinants we find a negative impact of the size of regional economies and of labour market flexibility, and a positive impact of sectoral concentration, financialization of the economy, and, occasionally, of participation in EMU.

This paper looks at the effects of the ‘Great Recession’ on young people's labour market experiences in the European Union. The paper documents some of the key characteristics of young people's labour market experiences during the current recession and then seeks to provide some explanations of these applying both cross-section and time-series rolling regression models in order, in particular, to better understand the role of labour market institutions as a determining factor of differing experiences across countries. The analysis finds that labour market flexibility contributed significantly to the negative consequences felt by young people during the recession.

This paper deals with the situation on the European labour market and especially on the Czech labour market. It shows the impact of long-term unemployment - a crucial problem in contemporary European countries - on the economy and on the society and its integrity. Great attention is paid to the social parasitism of the long-term unemployed and to the conversion of social protection systems that started in the late 1990s, when the new principle of social protection systems - the coercive principle - was set up. The principal fi ndings concern the decline in long-term unemployment both on the European labour market and on the Czech labour market after the conversion of the social protection systems. Last but not least, the paper deals with labour market flexibility.

This paper aims to shed light in the dynamics of Spanish regional unemployment rates and determine the driving forces of their disparities. The Spanish economy has one of the highest unemployment rates in the EU and is characterised by severe regional disparities. We apply the chain reaction theory of unemployment according to which the evolution of unemployment is driven by the interplay of lagged adjustment processes and the spillover effects within the labour market system. Our model includes nationwide as well as region-specific variables, and takes into account the limited labour and firm mobility in Spain. We show that the degree of labour market flexibility differs between high and low unemployment regions, and find that investment has a major influence on the unemployment trajectory. In addition, we find that in bad times high unemployment regions are hit more severely than low unemployment regions, while in good times high unemployment regions do not benefit as much as low unemployment regions.

This paper deals with the situation on the Czech labour market in the period 1990-2006. It shows the status and development of the supply and demand sides of this market. Great attention is paid to the long-term trends in employment, self-employment, unemployment, and long-term unemployment. The principal findings concern the dominance of the supply side of the labour market, especially the unfavourable decline in young labour force in the present difficult period, a special pattern of Czech self-employment development, a heavy tax burden on employees' income, and distortions of labour market caused by high labour costs (social and health insurance). Last but not least, the paper explores the labour market flexibility.

Over the next few years, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic will experience fundamental structural changes in their economies, not least because of their accession to the European Union. The economic adjustment processes that will take place in these countries require a high degree of labour market flexibility. This paper analyses whether the labour markets in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are flexible enough for these processes to take place smoothly. In particular, it discusses the following areas: labour force participation, qualification and regional mobility of the labour force, wage-setting systems and statutory minimum wages, labour taxes, government regulations affecting working time and protection against dismissal, and public job-placement services. The paper reveals that there are impediments to labour market flexibility in all of these areas. It also shows that the specific rigidities vary from country to country, both in nature and in intensity. Comparative Economic Studies (2004) 46, 272–310. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ces.8100026

European countries have adopted widely varying policies concerning employment protection. In economies where permanent workers have high levels of employ ment protection, temporary contracts can provide a mechanism enhancing labour market flexibility, since firms can adjust their workforces by varying the number of temporary workers. In Spain and, to a lesser extent, France countries charac terised by high levels of employment protection there has been a dramatic growth in temporary jobs over the last 15 years. The experience of Britain pro vides a contrast, since weak employment protection has been associated with a low and stable percentage of the workforce in temporary jobs. Recently, EU policy makers have turned their attention to temporary jobs, and required the extension of employment protection to temporary workers. This symposium gathers together comparative evidence on the nature and evolution of temporary work in countries with different regulatory frameworks and different labour market conditions. Some of the evidence is microeconomic, providing information on the extent to which temporary jobs are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in terms of worker compensation and career possibilities. Other evidence is macro economic, and sheds light both on forces that may explain the rise in temporary work and on the consequences of an increased prevalence of temporary jobs. The four papers in the symposium examine temporary work in four EU countries: Britain, France, Spain and Sweden. The reason for looking across countries is that the differing institutions in each country notably the degree of employment protection allow us to examine different features of temporary work. Britain provides the benchmark case where weak employment protection means that the outcome follows an essentially unregulated market. Sweden and France have maintained employment protection at about the average levels in Europe for the past fifteen years. Both, however, show sharp rises in temporary work over the period, although as discussed in the papers possibly for very different reasons. Spain is an interesting extreme example where temporary work is far higher than

A creative economy requires innovation-friendly conditions. Korea’s innovation system should be improved by upgrading universities and expanding their role in business R&D, while increasing international collaboration in R&D from its current low level. The returns from Korea’s large investment in innovation should be enhanced by improving framework conditions – easing product market regulations, promoting international competition and enhancing labour market flexibility – to encourage the adoption of new technology. Venture businesses and start-ups should play a key role in commercialising innovation. To make venture investment a growth driver, it is important to expand the role of business angels, activate the merger-and-acquisition market and foster entrepreneurship. A creative economy also depends on making SMEs, which account for 87% of employment, more dynamic. SME policies should be streamlined and improved to promote market-based financing and reduce the negative effects of government funding programmes, which discourage the expansion of SMEs. The growth of small firms also depends on resolving labour market mismatches and taking full advantage of the opportunities afforded by the Internet. This Working Paper relates to the 2014 OECD Economic Survey of Korea (www.oecd.org/eco/economic-survey-korea.htm).

Finland’s population is set to age rapidly in the coming decades. This will put pressure on public finances, while shrinking labour resources. Nonetheless, solutions exist to alleviate those pressures. Adjusting the pension age in line with the rise in life expectancy would reduce pension costs and increase older workers’ employment, provided it is accompanied by the removal of the pathways to early retirement. In order to allow people to work longer, labour market flexibility should be enhanced and lifelong training promoted further. Active labour market policies should be strengthened so as to increase the labour force participation of youth, childbearing age women and the long-term unemployed. Finally, ageing should not only be seen as a burden as it can also create opportunities for innovation and new markets and industries. Information and communications technologies, where Finland has a strong knowledge base, can help the elderly stay as autonomous as possible, which would contain long-term care costs and improve well-being. This Working Paper relates to the 2014 OECD Economic Survey of Finland (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economicsurvey- finland.htm).

A growing body of recent research suggests that successful industrial adjustment at the local level today reflects the capacities of unions and management to identify problems and pursue solutions co-operatively through processes of micro-concertation which enlist the work-force substantially in the adjustment process at the firm level. The presence of such capacities to engage in micro-concertation has in turn been linked by some studies to a variety of local-level political and social realities which facilitate worker skill formation (including the ability to identify and solve problems), while encouraging communication and the development of trust between workers and management. Strong unions able to legitimize managerial decisions and to enlist the acquiescence and support of the work-force are seen as key to the success of such micro-concertational systems. This recent research on micro-concertation would seem to conflict with the liberal–conservative view that successful industrial adjustment occurs not when unions are strong, but when they are too weak to impede managerial choices. This paper examines successful processes of industrial adjustment in several textile–clothing–footwear centres of northern and central Italy. The paper observes that both strong-labour ‘micro-concertational’ and weak-labour ‘free-market’ models of successful adjustment exist, and that they prevail, respectively, in different geographical areas. The paper argues that successful micro-concertational adjustment is most likely where unions are strong, united and encompassing, and that successful free-market adjustment is most likely where unions are weak, divided and non-encompassing. This observation parallels the insights of Alvarez et al. (1991) on successful national-level macroeconomic performance, and suggests that the political-economic logic observed by Alvarez et al. at the national level obtains also at the local level. The paper observes further that the existence of both models suggests that successful adjustment may be linked to capacity of either micro-concertation or union weakness to remove impediments to labour market flexibility.

This paper develops a general equilibrium model of North-South trade with different wage setting regimes and a nontradeables sector. Simulations confirm that substantial gains from trade openness can be accompanied by a significant deterioration in the position of unskilled Northern workers. Increasing labor market flexibility will not correct this problem and protectionist measures, such as enforcing labor standards on the South, will reduce global income. Less conventional labor market policies, such as employment subsidies for unskilled workers, offer a more effective response, and one, moreover, which benefits workers in both the North and South. Copyright 1997 by Royal Economic Society.

In this paper, the authors study how firms react to demand shocks, examining how different aspects of flexibility shape their responses. Their main findings are that very few firms choose to adjust to price in response to a demand shock and that firms with more flexibility are more likely to respond to demand shocks by adjusting employment and hours. The authors' results provide a microeconomic explanation for recent macroeconomic evidence that labor input has become more closely aligned to the business cycle. Copyright 1997 by Royal Economic Society.

Variations among the diverse pension systems in the member states of the European Union (EU) hamper labor market mobility across national borders and also among firms within the countries of the EU. From a macroeconomic perspective, and in the light of demographic pressure, this paper argues that allowing individual pension accounts instead of collective pension plans would greatly improve labor market flexibility and would thus enhance the functioning of the monetary union. I argue that working citizens would benefit by having their pension funds accumulating in individual pension savings accounts for three reasons. First, citizens would have a clear picture of the accumulation of their own pension savings throughout their working lives. Second, they would pay minimal extra costs, and third, they would not be subject to the whims of governments or other pension fund managers after they retired. This paper investigates the feasibility of individual pension accumulation plans under various parameter settings by calculating the value of the pension saved during a working life and the amount of the pension dis-saved after retirement. The findings show that there are no reasons why the EU and the individual member states should not allow individual pension savings accounts. This approach, as an alternative to forcing workers to participate in one of the various mandatory collective pension schemes that exist in different countries in the EU, would have macroeconomic benefits and would also provide a solid pension program that can enhance mobility.

This paper presents a joint analysis of labour market flexibility and product market structure. Our investigation confirms earlier results of imperfect competition in South African manufacturing indusry, with an average mark-up of 50% for the period 1970 to 2004, without consistent trend in the mark-up over time. The contribution of the paper is to provide a theoretically grounded means of linking output market conduct to labour market flexibility. We infer the proportion of labour associated with rigidities in the labour market rather than flexible from the mark-up, and find that two thirds of total labour employed in South African manufacturing is associated with rigidities. We find that this proportion falls during the 1980s and rises during the 1990s, suggesting an increase in labour flexibility followed by a decrease.

In mid-2008, high employment and low unemployment rates characterised the Estonian labour market in comparison with the average of the EU15 countries. While aggregate outcomes improved during 2000-07, large inequalities persisted across regions, ethnic groups, and workers with different skill levels. As Estonia entered recession in 2008, the unemployment rate almost doubled between the 2nd and the 4th quarter, and is expected to rise further in 2009 and 2010. More flexible labour markets will be a key adjustment mechanism during the recession as well as in the medium term if Estonia is to become a knowledge-based economy. Given the currency board arrangement and low synchronisation with the euro area, flexibility is also needed to cushion asymmetric shocks. In December 2008, parliament adopted the new Employment Contract Act, deregulating employment protection while increasing income security of the unemployed. This paper discusses options for removing the remaining barriers that impede worker reallocation across jobs, sectors, and regions into more productive activities.