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Social economy enterprises (SEEs) – such as cooperatives and social enterprises – comprise around 7% of UK employment. A published by the Institute for Employment Research (IER) found that SEEs weathered the storm of the 2008 Financial crisis better than other enterprises and were able to deliver inclusive growth, sustainable development and higher quality jobs. Moreover SEEs in Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK provided faster jobs growth compared to other organisations. The resilience and jobs growth of SEEs in the wake of the 2008 Financial crisis should therefore be harnessed to support the current pandemic economic recovery.

Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic and ongoing, Dr Sally-Anne Barnes and Professor Jenny Bimrose have been drawing upon their latest research to support the international careers guidance and counselling community by delivering online learning via a number of webinars.

Nearly 400 practitioners from professional associations and government departments from across the world have participated in the webinars and are drawing upon IER research to inform their practice. Webinars have covered recent research on how to support parents and carers in providing careers support, careers labour market information, and lifelong guidance policy and practice.

We would like to congratulate two of our former students who have been awarded their doctorates today, Dr Lorraine Johnson and Dr Jeisson Cárdenas-Rubio.

Dr Johnson interviewed women about their transition from public sector work during a period of austerity focusing on the intermediary systems they used. Lorraine’s research evidenced the range of support systems used to aid transitions and provided a number of recommendations for careers practice. Lorraine is currently undertaking an early career fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies at the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½.

Dr Cardenas-Rubio investigated to what extent a web-based model of skill mismatches could be developed for countries where the information on the labour market is relatively scarce. Jeisson’s research drew upon innovative methods in web scraping, big data analytics and machine learning to produce labour market information for Columbia that was analysed to provide a picture of the Columbian labour market. We are pleased that Jeisson joined the IER team earlier this year.

Professor Clare Lyonette was interviewed on BBC Radio Nottingham on Thursday July 16th about her new UKRI-funded project 'Carrying the work burden of the Covid-19 pandemic: working class women in the UK'. Listen to the interview , starting at around 11.20 am.

The project, led by from the University of Nottingham, in collaboration with Professor Clare Lyonette and the is being funded under the . Using new Covid-related questions from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, the research will assess how working-class women, who already juggle paid employment with the bulk of housework and childcare responsibilities, have been affected by the additional pressures of increased demands, both at home and at work. Read more in the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ press release here.

Not even out of the health crisis, the UK is entering a jobs crisis. New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows a mixed picture of employment but with strong indications that employment is set to fall. The UK Government has done well to maintain employment levels to date but needs to be equally brave going forward and stick to its plan to create more good jobs in the UK.