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The Missing Entrepreneurs 2014 is the second edition in a series of annual reports that provide data and policy analysis on inclusive entrepreneurship, and on its barriers, by target social groups across the European Union. Inclusive entrepreneurship involves business start-ups and self-employment activities that contribute to economic growth and social inclusion - notably of youth, women, seniors, immigrants and the unemployed. In addition to inspiring policy practices, this issue contains special thematic chapters on entrepreneurship by ethnic minorities, pro-entrepreneurship welfare support systems and support for entrepreneurship from unemployment.

This publication highlights new evidence on policies to support job creation, bringing together the latest research on labour market, entrepreneurship and local economic development policy to help governments support job creation in the recovery. It  also includes  a set of country pages featuring, among other things, new data on skills supply and demand at the level of smaller OECD regions (TL3).

This publication is the first in a series to take this integrative approach, and it is designed to be user friendly and accessible to all government officials, academics, practitioners and civil society with an interest in local economic development and job creation.

This review underlines some important points of strength with respect to Italian SMEs and entrepreneurship, notably for medium-sized firms that very often excel in their market niches, have a strong propensity to business collaboration, as well as favourable access to finance. The review also looks at the challenges that lie ahead for Italy, hard hit by the global economic crisis, notably among micro and small firms. Recovery will mean, among other things, removing barriers to business growth, streamlining the complexity of the Italian tax system, and opening the business environment to competition, foreign direct investment and equity financing, as well as improving training and workforce skills.

With the rising economic importance of human resources and skills, employment and training agencies are now often expected to play a more important role in local strategies to support new creation, facilitate restructuring and increase productivity. The OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme has developed an international cross-comparative study examining the contribution of local labour market policy to boosting quality employment and enhancing productivity. In Korea, the review has looked at the range of institutions and bodies involved in employment and skills policies, focusing on local strategies in the Bucheon and Busan regions.