Building Quality Jobs in the Recovery

Organised by the OECD LEED Programme in cooperation with the Irish Departments of Environment, Community and Local Government, Social Protection, Children and Youth Affairs and Pobal, as part of the activities of the OECD LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance.

The experience of previous economic downturns demonstrates that it takes a long time before employment is restored to pre-recession levels and that some people who are made unemployed during a recession can lose connection with the labour market and consequently become long-term unemployed.

The task of rebuilding employment and creating progression and accessibility for all is not an easy one. During the period of strong economic growth and low unemployment, net wages and income actually stagnated for a large proportion of the population and income inequalities increased. In many prosperous regions firms did not see sufficient incentives to invest in and better utilise the skills available in the workforce and the quality of employment has therefore become a neglected issue in some OECD countries. Some groups, such as youth, immigrants and older workers have been particularly adversely affected and they require specialised support to enable them to get back into work.

While solutions have already been put in place to address urgent needs, new ways of working are required to create more sustainable, more productive and more equitable employment for the future.

Currently, governments and local authorities have to address these challenges but with much scarcer resources. Therefore they need to ensure that policies and local initiatives have a capacity to generate growth, job creation and tackle exclusion. To get more from limited funds, communities have to maximise every opportunity to foster growth. Employment, economic development and inclusion programmes can no longer be designed in policy silos.

The conference will bring together over 200 government officials, business representatives, local partnerships, leaders and social entrepreneurs, experts and academics, to discuss how communities can respond to these pressing labour market problems.

The conference will review and draw lessons from successful past experiences and innovative solutions available today to identify how labour market policy, skills development and training policies can contribute to sustainable employment creation, through co-ordination with long-term economic development and local strategies. The event will be structured around four thematic issues:

Long Term Unemployment
Youth Unemployment
Social Economy
Early Childhood Supports

Registration Essentials

Please note this event limited to invitees of Minister Phil Hogan and international participants from OECD countries. Any other registrations cannot be guaranteed.

Please note the following when registering:

The conference is free of charge
Please familiarise yourself with the Event programme prior to registering as you will be asked to choose specific workshops and a thematic plenary session. Please note that items on this agenda may be subject to some further changes
Please ensure that you only register for one workshop per session on Day 2 & Day 3
Please ensure that you only register for one thematic plenary session on Day 3
We will do our utmost to ensure that you receive your preferred session options, however, we cannot guarantee this
Registration can be completed under the Registration tab on this website
Please note you must register for the conference before Friday 7th October 2011
If you have any queries on using this website to register, please contact Kate or Majella on oecdconference@pobal.ie or 00 353 1 5117000