Labour market practices

A labour market that enhances employability and facilitates transitions into employment includes:

• comprehensive labour market information,
• comprehensive hiring and separation practices,
• work organization and training that offer career opportunities,
• equity awareness and implementation,
• human resources planning incorporated into strategic planning, and
• advanced employer-employee relations.

In the conceptual framework that we have adopted (described in chapter I), labour market practices have as much influence on employability as individual characteristics (Figure 2).

Statement of belief

Much emphasis must be placed on labour market policies and practices to permit the establishment of a coherent transition system.

All employers -- private, public, and not-for-profit organizations -- contribute to establishing labour market practices and, hence, affect employability. Workers and their representatives, most often through the bargaining process, are also involved. Governments are active in this area, mainly by setting labour market practices.

Today's workplace has changed considerably in the last few decades. It has adapted to changes in the environment: demographic, technological, political, and economic. In this broad context, we see labour market practices as an essential factor in the employability equation. Can this country afford to lose output by misusing the human capital it has helped to build or has acquired through immigration?