Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs
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Social Policies
About Statistics Publications & Documents Information by Country

Social policies affect people at different stages of their lives and have to address a range of issues: child-development, combining family and work responsibilities, social benefits  and disability policies  for periods out of work, spells of poverty (and more generally income distribution), and pension policies for the elderly. In all areas, taking a gender  perspective is an important for policy design.

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Modernising Social Policy for the New Life Course

14-Feb-2008

For decades, social policy interventions were limited to assist and insure against a limited number of well-defined risks. However, the social order based on standard employment relations, the male breadwinner model and social security in defined but exceptional circumstances, has changed.

OECD says governments must help people with reduced work capacity to get jobs

18-Dec-2007

A new OECD report analyses the sickness and disability policies in Australia, Luxembourg, Spain and the United Kingdom. It recommends steps governments should take to reduce the number of people claiming sickness and disability benefits and help beneficiaries back into the labour market.

Encouraging employment - OECD countries balance benefits, wages and taxes

13-Dec-2007

Faced with labour shortages and pressures on pension funding due to ageing populations, one in three OECD countries has cut unemployment benefits in the last six years with a view to encouraging unemployed people to find jobs, according to a new OECD report.

Improved childcare policies needed to achieve better work/life balance, says OECD

29-Nov-2007

Getting family-friendly policies right will help reduce poverty, promote child development, enhance equity between men and women and stem the fall in birth-rates, according to a new OECD report.
Babies and Bosses, Reconciling Work and Family Life compares the different approaches that the 30 OECD countries take to help parents balance their work and family commitments. 
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Babies and Bosses Vol. 5

Babies and Bosses - Reconciling Work and Family Life: A Synthesis of Findings for OECD Countries

Pensions at a Glance - Edition 2007

A consistent framework for comparing public-pension policies across OECD countries.

Our Newsletter on Employment, Labour and Social Affairs


Women and men in OECD countries

A few of the most important and ongoing projects aimed at improving gender policy in OECD countries.

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