Which employment trends have been accelerated by the pandemic,
and what does this mean for the labour market and the economy
over the longer term? What stimulus measures should the
Government introduce to boost the recovery?
These are among the questions the House of
Lords Economic Affairs Committee will be asking two panels of
prominent economists, including Jonathan Portas, Diane Coyle and
Minouche Shafik on Tuesday 10 November.
The first session will begin at 3pm. Giving
evidence will be:
-
Fabian Wallace-Stephens, Senior Researcher,
Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and
Commerce (RSA)
-
Tera Allas CBE, Director of Research and
Economics, McKinsey & Company.
Questions the Committee is likely to ask
include:
-
How should the Government be judging the best
time to withdraw employment support measures so that viable
jobs are protected without unduly slowing labour market
reallocation when vacancies rebound?
-
Is the nature of economic readjustment from
the crisis likely to be structural,
or is it more likely that change will be more
limited?
-
The RSA’s report on automation recommended a
policy platform consisting of targeted support, transition
services, and upskilling. How does this compare to the
Government’s current and planned employment, skills, and
retraining policies?
-
What are the implications of an increasingly
digital economy for both consumers and producers in the long
term?
-
Are there any early indications as to how the
nature of economic adjustment may affect the Government’s
‘levelling up’ agenda?
The second session will begin at 4pm. Giving
evidence will be:
-
Diane Coyle, Co-director of the Bennett
Institute for Public Policy, University of
Cambridge
-
Jonathan Portas, Professor of Economics and
Public Policy, King's College London
-
, Director,
London School of Economics.
Questions the Committee is likely to ask
include:
-
With regards to the Government’s economic
response to date, what successes can it claim and where has it
fallen behind?
-
Given that the rise in unemployment is in
part being driven by falling job vacancies, what does the
Government need to do to shift its support from retaining
employment to creating new jobs?
-
What role should the state be playing in
planning and delivering a recovery?
-
How important is a new Industrial Strategy
and how much should we be thinking about it
now?
-
In its report Treating Students
Fairly the Committee called for a better distribution of
public funding across all forms and institutions in higher and
further education. Would raising the status of all technical
and higher education qualifications help to mitigate the impact
of the crisis on young people?
