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Occupational restructuring means that worker skills need to be updated, broadened or totally renewed. This report focuses on persons whose employment prospects have been particularly challenged by occupational restructuring: persons who in the mid-1990s were employed in occupations characterized by declining employment throughout the period of study, i.e. up to the year 2009. The analysis focuses on their participation in various modes of adult education and their long-term labour market outcomes. Employees in declining occupations are found to have participated only moderately in adult education. The result is the same also when adult education is split into four main modes, and into shorter and longer time horizons. Younger cohorts and those with a higher education are strongly overrepresented among those participating in adult education programmes leading to a certificate. The labour market status of the older cohorts and the low-educated is typically much weaker, and labour market training their most common form of adult education. In view of these findings, it would be imperative to reliably evaluate the economic but, to the extent possible, also the social effects of adult education and its various modes.

Across the OECD countries, dropouts from upper secondary schooling fare worse in the labor market, with higher NEET rates more spells of unemployment and lower earnings. Among the dropouts, there are however significant shares who complete at a later age. In this paper, we thus ask the question: Does it pay for young adults who do not complete upper secondary schooling by the age of 21, to do so at some point during the subsequent 7 years, that is, before turning 28? In all four Nordic countries under scrutiny, we find that late completion lowers the probability of being outside employment, education or training (NEET) at age 28. Moreover, the exact age of completion does not seem to matter. Our estimates are robust to the inclusion of extensive controls for socioeconomic background and early schooling paths, and similar to the ones produced by event history analysis with individual fixed effects. This indicates that late completion of upper secondary schooling plays an important role for the labor market inclusion of young dropouts.

In this report, we re-assess the role of so-called job banks as mediators into the open labour market but also as employers of unemployed job-seekers. The focus is primarily on the unemployed who became job bank clients during 2013. We follow up the labour market situation of these individuals during one year’s timeahead, until the end of 2014. In the latter part of the report, we compare the main findings to those obtained for the unemployed having re-entered the labour market with the help of a job bank either in 2011 or 2012. We present two different sets of results concerning individuals’ near-future labour market experiences. The first set illustrates the development of their employment situation more generally both before and after employment via a job bank while the second set reports results obtained from using statistical evaluation methods. The results indicate that the labour market prospects of those having been employed via a job bank have, on average, been clearly better than for identical unemployed persons who did not use the services of a job bank. Moreover, those employed via a job bank often also seem to have faced better opportunities to stay employed. The results are the same irrespective of whether or not the job bank client‘s employment involves wage subsidies.

In this report, we follow up the situation of individuals having re-entered the labour market with the help of a so-called job bank. The follow-up period extends over the next two years after their job-bank-mediated transition into the open labour market. We present two different sets of results concerning individuals’ near-future labour market experiences. The first set illustrates the development of their employment situation more generally while the second set reports results obtained from using statistical evaluation methods. The results show, inter alia, that the labour market prospects of those having been employed via a job bank have, on average, been clearly better than for identical individuals not having used the services of a job bank.

The polarization of job growth is a key development trend in today’s labour markets. This study focuses mainly on those individuals whose jobs are most strongly threatened by the negative aspects of polarizing labour markets. These people are working in private-sector jobs, the employment role of which is weakening. In other words, a shrinking share of private-sector employees is engaged in these jobs. Moreover, these jobs are typically not only characterized by a declining employment share, but often by a reduction also in absolute terms. Accordingly there is reason to ask what is happening to the employees holding such jobs. What do their job careers look like and do their labour market outcomes vary depending on the jobs they perform? Which factors and mechanisms affect the observed job careers and to what extent? The occupations identified to have been declining are Office clerks, Metal, machinery and related trades workers, Other craft and related trades workers, Wood-processing and papermaking plant operators, Rubber, paper, and textile products machine operators, and Product assemblers. The labour market status of the individuals working in these occupations in 1995 is traced up to 2009. Additionally, attempts are made to identify the background factors having most strongly affected the individual transition patterns observed. The results suggest, inter alia, that Office clerks have had the best prospects to shift to another job, that is, either to a non-shrinking occupation in the private sector or to a job in the public sector. Apart from the occupation itself, especially age and formal education stand out as having been decisive for the individual’s future labour market outcomes.

Young people follow highly different trajectories from age 16 up to age 20, a time period which is often argued to be the most critical in terms of their future labour market outcomes. The focus of this report is on investigating the look of these early pathways, as well as on exploring their link to labour market outcomes in adulthood. Results are reported and compared for four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

The Nordic welfare model has received a lot of positive attention around the world. High standard of living, small income disparities and substantial social mobility looks like a very attractive package. Moreover, sound public finances and strong emphasis on environmental sustainability suggest that today’s success has not been accomplished at the expense of future generations. But is there really a unique “Nordic Supermodel”, unshaken by the global economic crisis and capable of producing continuous high growth and world class welfare services when many developed economies struggle with the impacts of global competition and population ageing? This book shows that Nordic performance has not been quite as unique or uniform as often claimed. The recent global and European crisis and country specific shocks have affected also the Nordic countries, some of them very strongly. And there are as many variants of the Nordic model as there are Nordic countries. Going forward, also the Nordic countries will be challenged by ageing, globalisation and technological change, some more than the others. On the other hand many fundamentals remain strong in the Nordic countries, and, what is perhaps most important, the Nordics have proved themselves capable of adjusting. Labour market practices, pension policies, and production of public services have been reformed to match new circumstances. Public policies have been aimed at creating new jobs and helping people in transition, not at protecting uncompetitive businesses. There is a strong, rational tradition of consensual policy making. Further reforms are needed, and some widening of income disparities may be inevitable. The message of the book is, however, that refocused and recalibrated in a realistic scale the Nordic model has good chances of thriving well into the future.

Metsäbiomassan energiakäyttöä suunnitellaan lisättävän merkittävästi Suomessa. Tämän tutkimushankkeen tavoitteena oli arvioida hakkutähteiden, kantojen ja harvennusten tähdepuun energiakäytön aiheuttamat kasvihuonekaasupäästöt ilmakehään ja näiden päästöjen aiheuttama ilmastoa lämmittävä vaikutus. Hankkeessa huomioitiin metsäbiomassan korjuu- ja käyttöketjusta sekä metsän hiilivarastojen muutoksista johtuvat kasvihuonekaasupäästöt. Lisäksi hankkeessa arvioitiin metsäbiomassan energiakäytön aiheuttamat pienhiukkasvaikutukset. Metsäbiomassan energiakäytön aiheuttamat kasvihuonekaasupäästöt ja ilmastovaikutukset arvioitiin sekä metsikkötasolla että koko Suomen tasolla. Metsikkötason tarkastelujen avulla haarukoitiin päästöjen ja ilmastovaikutusten vaihteluväli Suomessa. Koko Suomen tason laskelmien avulla arvioitiin tähän asti toteutuneen metsäbiomassan energiakäytön sekä suunnitellun käytön lisäyksen vaikutukset Suomen metsien hiilitaseeseen ja Suomen kasvihuonekaasupäästöihin. Pienhiukkasvaikutukset arvioitiin metsäbioenergian korjuu- ja käyttöketjun tasolla Etelä- ja Pohjois-Suomessa. Metsäbiomassan energiakäytön aiheuttamia kasvihuonekaasupäästöjä ja ilmastovaikutuksia verrattiin fossiilisten polttoaineiden käytön päästöihin ja vaikutuksiin sadan vuoden aikana. Suomen tason laskelmissa tarkasteltiin jo toteutuneen ja suunnitellun metsäbiomassan energiakäytön lisäämisen vaikutuksia Suomen kasvihuonekaasutaseeseen ja metsien hiilinieluun vuosina 2000-2025. Tuloksista tehtiin johtopäätöksiä, jotka koskivat 1) metsäbiomassan energiakäytön tehokkuutta energiantuotannon päästöjen vähentämisessä ja ilmastonmuutoksen hillinnässä, 2) metsäbiomassan energiakäytön ilmastovaikutusten vähentämismahdollisuuksia sekä 3) metsäbiomassan energiakäytön päästöjen ja ilmastovaikutusten huomioimista ilmastopolitiikan taustalla olevissa laskentajärjestelmissä ja -säännöissä.