Updated: 31/08/2004

Welcome and opening
MONIQUE RAMIOUL

Introduction
Measuring the Information Society
EUROSTAT REPRESENTATIVE

Measuring labour market mobility in the ICT sector: findings from the EU LFS and the Belgian Datawarehouse
ALEX STIMPSON & MAARTEN TIELENS

Central questions and issues to be addressed

Using two sources, this paper lays out the methodological issues confronted by researchers that want to measure mobility of people in the ICT sector. To illustrate the advantages and shortcom-ings of each source, it provides a series of results, which include cross-country comparisons, de-tailed flows into and out of ICT related domains and a comparison of the results between sources.

Theoretical and/or methodological approach

Exploiting labour force survey data for European countries and the Datawarehouse for Belgium (a database in which a series of social data from a number of social security institutions are perma-nently linked), this paper explores the possibilities to assess the current and future value of the LFS and of administrative data for research into mobility in the ICT sector.

Data description/analysis

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the level of interaction between the ICT sector and other branches of the economy using the Datawarehouse and a global comparison of both sources with regard to stocks and flows in and around the labour market.

Conclusions

It seems possible to use the EU LFS to provide cross-country comparisons of growth in the ICT sec-tor as well as the changing composition of its workers following an adapted (enlarged) definition of the ICT sector. However, it is evident that whilst, in theory, the EU LFS offers the means to cal-culate indicators on not just mobility in the ICT sector but also the characteristics of the individuals that are mobile, the practical application of these methods gives less satisfactory results. Researcher and user needs are becoming ever more demanding and it is only natural that at some point the realities of the statistical system, which include resource constraints, burden and confidentiality issues, will not be able to cope with these demands.
The first analyses of labour market mobility using the Datawarehouse have clearly illustrated the possibilities of administrative data for mobility research in general and concerning knowledge flows into and around the ICT sector in particular. We conclude that the differences between the labour force survey and the Datawarehouse with relation to the stocks and job-to-job mobility flows generally remain fairly limited, though mount up when broken down by sector of activity, particularly for certain groups like the youngsters, where many proxy-respondents are used. With relation to the flows into and out of work, the differences are greater, even on a very general level.

Policy relevance

In March 2002, at the Barcelona Summit, the European Union welcomed the Commission’s Action Plan for skills and mobility, designed to reduce barriers to the mobility of people in Europe, whether occupational or geographical. A recurring theme of this Action Plan is Information and Communi-cation Technologies (ICTs) and the skills deficit for such sectors. A better understanding of the growth and flows in the ICT branch is therefore important. Demographic factors, business cycles and rapid technological change increasingly result in quantitative and qualitative imbalances in the supply of skilled labour. Looking at the flows of ICT workers – where are they coming from and where are they going to – should help to highlight the skills mismatch in the demand for, and sup-ply of, ICT workers. Measuring evolutions in the mobility, and to a certain extent ‘knowledge transfer’, of individuals in ICT and other forms of eWork would also considerably improve our understanding on changing work patterns.

Recommendations for policy and research

In general, the strengths of the Datawarehouse correspond to the weaknesses of the LFS and vice versa. In future, the significance of administrative data can only grow by the steady growth of ICT applications by public authorities and because an increasing amount of information is recorded with regard to the labour market and education. It is clear that the possibilities of administrative databases for quantitative analysis are unsurpassable. Then again, the strength of surveys like the LFS resides in the fact that they can obtain more qualitative information that can complement the quantitative information contained within administrative databases. The most comprehensive so-lution would be for both sources to underpin each other with their respective strengths. The ad-vantages of both sources are clearly complementary. In this case, the Datawarehouse could be complemented with data on educational attainment and the LFS data enriched with panel data regarding the labour market situation.


A cost benefit assessment of administrative databases and surveys in measuring labour market mobility
MIKAEL ÅKERBLOM

Issues to be addressed

The focus of the paper will be a comparison between two sources of information available to de-scribe labour market mobility available in Finland and other Nordic countries; administrative reg-isters and labour force surveys. The both sources will be assessed from a cost benefit perspective. The paper will be based on a more extended paper on the measurement of knowledge stocks and flows produced as the final deliverable of a NESIS work package.

Objectives of the paper

An attempt is made to analyse the quite substantial differences of mobility rates derived from reg-isters and labour force surveys and discuss probable explanations.

Methodology used

The Finnish register based system will be described in some detail as well as characteristics of the Finnish labour force survey. This paper will be based on producing the same indicators from both sources and comparing the information from the Finnish LFS sample with register information on the individual level. The focus of the analysis has been on the high skilled.

Conclusions

There seems to be quite a lot of difficulties in coding occupations in the labour force survey. Occu-pations have been removed from regular production in registers but every fifth year an update is done. The method differs from the LFS method, which leads to quite different results. The re-cording of mobility events in the LFS seems to systematically underestimate mobility. These may be due to problems with statistical unit in the LFS. There are some problems with registers also due to changes in firm organisation.
These differing results may have some policy implications, as it is really difficult to evaluate if there is too much or too little mobility. It is however clear that mobility in new economy sectors is higher than in old economy sectors.

Recommendations for policy and research

We have to live with the LFS for broad comparisons on the international level. Harmonisation of occupational codings and more strict specifications for statistical units in LFS could nevertheless be recommended to enhance the quality. For more detailed analysis of mobility register data is pre-ferred, if available.


Reflections on mobility in the New Economy
ANDERS EKELAND

Theoretical and/or methodological approach

The paper discusses the relation between the data available, the stylised facts and the high political ambitions regarding mobility. The paper argues that mobility is an optimum phenomenon and that the implicit assumption that current mobility is too low has no real foundation. There is also a lack of awareness of the difficulties of changing the rate and/or the pattern of mobility. In addition the paper discusses the very widespread idea that the key to increased mobility is labour market flexi-bility - that is larger wage differences and less employment protection. In our opinion this kind of policy advice shows a lack of understanding of the real labour market dynamics. The paper argues that there is a need for more critical reflection, before starting to implement mobility policies on a large scale.

Data description and analysis

There are two sources of mobility data - the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and register data. The LFS is available in almost all European countries. It has been increasingly standardised since the early nineties it is regrettably - the only basis for calculation of comparative mobility rates. But these data must be critically analysed. If we are to believe the LFS, Italy has a very low mobility, in the range of 3-5%, and that Spain has the highest rate around 13-14%. But more important is that in general the LFS rates are almost from 5-10 percentage point lower than the corresponding rates based on register data. The immediate consequence of this ‘stylised fact’ is that we do not know if we are going to raise mobility rates from a level below 10% or from a level above 15%. If you are really serious about mobility then you would give first priority to solving this contradiction between the data sources.
It is also important to keep in mind the fact that mobility has both upsides and downsides for the delivering and receiving organisation, i.e. that it is a question of finding the optimum level. In practice we have so far no basis for quantifying the various factors, so we can only say that the ex-tremely low 2,5 and extreme high 25% should lead to a more detailed analysis. When it comes to rates between the extremes - we have so far no reason to say that 8% is to low and 16% to high.

Conclusions

First of all given the contradiction between LFS and register data one should have initiated a project solving this paradox. This should be a primary task for the register data countries. But also the policy level EU and national should realise that before this is solved policymaking has no real solid empirical foundation.
Secondly the positive and negative consequences for the delivering and receiving institutions respectively are very complex and a even a very detailed longitudinal dataset of a quality far be-yond anything we have to day would possibly allow us to measure these effects. Not only register-data, but detailed human capital data, for ex. coming from electronic CVs are needed to advance significantly our understanding.
Thirdly but even if we could measure these effects what could policy makers do about it? What kind of regulative changes could be made to increase or decrease mobility? Because the la-bour market is not easy to regulate, and the possible side effects very hard to predict one should be very cautious to replace a conceived ‘market failure’ with a real ‘governance failure’.

Policy relevance

The paper argues that if you are serious about mobility policy, if you do the ‘talk’, you must do the ‘walk’, that is get the data collection systems going, and that means solving the paradox of LFS vs. register data, it means make registrar data mandatory in all member states, it means having a European, standardized machine readable CV.
In particular the paper is critical towards the routine recommendations of for example the OECD that labour markets must be more flexible. If the ultimate goal of policy is to create welfare in the long term, then this demand for flexibility might be misguided. Empirical research on the Nordic countries shows that high and relatively equal wages stimulates innovation and growth, and that equality of income has a several positive and welfare enhancing consequences.

Recommendations for research and policy, to sum up:
If you are serious about mobility – you must get the data needed for real studies.
Don’t be trigger happy. The optimum mobility rate or range of mobility is very hard to quan-tify, besides the most extreme cases.
Do not have a naïve belief in labour market ‘flexibility’ interpreted as greater wage differentials, less employment security. That might lock people & talent into jobs they are not interested in just because wages are high.

New occupations in a new economic environment: European similarities and diversity
AN BOLLEN

The paper results from a workpackage of the Statistics and Indicators on the Labour market in the eEconomy (STILE) project. In this workpackage the focus was on the development of occupational profiles of two ICT occupations.
The objectives of the work are threefold. First of all the consortium wants to develop profiles that can be used by a broad group of users aiming at improving the match on the labour market at various levels:
at the macro level, the supranational level, the profiles can be used to bring into picture
international differences or to get insight into new occupations;
at the meso level, the national or sectoral level, the profiles can be used to get insight into
competence requirements. A comparison of these requirements with the available
competences can lead to the identification of a ‘competence gap’. Various measures to
improve the match between supply and demand on the labour market can be developed at
the meso level;
at the micro level, the organisational or workplace level, the profiles can be used to define
various jobs. It can also be used as a basis for developing assessment tools, evolving gaps
between required and available competences.

Second, the work makes an assessment of existing occupational profiling methods. This way the work contributes to the general aim of the STILE project, that is to ‘improve existing measures for monitoring tendencies in the labour market of the eEconomy’. The international composition and the focus on new ICT occupations has made it possible to identify opportunities and limitations of existing profiling methods for getting insight in oc-cupations in the international labour market of the eEconomy.
Third, the work wants to give an initial impetus to international comparable research. It is out of the research’s scope to explain international differences. Nevertheless, it is possible to put forward some research questions that can be subject of other research.

This paper will summarise the major conclusions with respect to these three goals, paying special attention to two characteristics; ‘new occupations’ and ‘international comparisons’. The paper deals with:
characteristics of new occupations in the eEconomy;
challenges for existing occupational profiling methods;
recommendations for profiling occupations in the eEconomy.

Occupational profiling as a labour market policy instrument: the French ROME classification
YVETTE PREVOT

The emergence of occupations and professions in the New Economy
PROF. DR. BEN HÖVELS

Towards more convergence of organisation surveys in Europe
DR. MARKUS PROMBERGER/ PROF. DR. PETER ESTER / AMELIA ROMAN

Based on the findings of STILE WP4, concerning the role of stakeholders as interest groups on the labour market, there is a clear need for the intensification of establishment-based labour market research. Especially the changes of labour demand and supply not only in the ICT sectors and their impact on the establishments employment structures are underresearched, and this counts even more for the cross-national comparison level. Analysing the stakeholders’ interests there are several crucial reasons why the need for cross-national comparison is presently not filled properly. On the unions’ side it is mainly a certain mistrust against management questioning, on the employers’ side it is the wishes not to expose internal procedures of establishments to scientific analysis or public opinion. But the structures of knowledge transfer between academic institutions and stakeholder organisations, especially by the affiliation of knowledge to persons changing from academic professions to expert positions within stakeholder organisations offer certain opportunities to improve that situation by raising interest and support to establishment-based labour market research. The contribution offers two ways to reach more convergence, one of them in the top-down direction, facing several obstacles hard to overcome, and the bottom-up direction, of which the STILE WP4 was kind of a first step, while other steps would have to follow, according to our proposal.

Measuring organisational change: evidence from a matched employer-employee survey in French manufacturing
NATHALIE GREENAN & JACQUES MAIRESSE

In this paper, we use a French matched employer-employee survey, the COI survey, conducted in 1997, to describe the general features of organisational change in manufacturing firms with more than fifty employees. We work with a sample of 3,286 firms and a sample of 2,612 blue collars with at least a year of seniority (“core” employees). We have two main aims: discuss new ways of measuring organisational change, allowing for diversity in its orientation and analyse empirically how new organisational practices have been shaping production jobs in French manufacturing firms throughout the nineties. In the first section of the paper we describe the statistical anatomy of organisational change based on the responses of management concerning the formal use of a set of business practices. We then turn to the labour force section of the survey where we analyse the pattern of work organisation in our sample of blue collars. This allows us not only to explore possible discrepancies between the formal organisation, as perceived by management, and the reality of shop-floor work, as perceived by the employees, but also to deepen our understanding of organisational change by examining the impact of formal changes in organisational practices on various dimensions of worker effort.
We find that a common ingredient to new organisational practices is the production of a collective knowledge on the shop floor allowing continuous improvement of the production process. The structure of blue-collar effort becomes more complex as they are required to participate intensively both in information and production flows. Some of our results also suggest that the core of organisational change in French manufacturing has changed direction after the 1993 recession generating a regression in terms of job enrichment for blue-collar workers.

Employer’s demand for part-time workers in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium - a comparative analysis based on three organisation panel surveys
PIET ALLAART, DR. LUTZ BELLMANN & GERT THEUNISSEN

In the European Union part-time employment is regarded as an instrument to
increase the employment rate. Also it has increased in many countries,
especially among women, the proportion of part-time employment varies
considerably among countries. Research on part-time work has in most cases a
limited scope, because only the supply side of the labour market is
considered. Less work is done on the demand side of the labour market. In
this paper we concentrate on the demand side of the labour market, and
analyse differences between Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium from the
employer’s prospective.

Offshore outsourcing of IST services from an EU policy perspective
DETLEF GERHARDT

The media and leading consultancy organisations have launched a highly controversial debate about ‘offshore outsourcing’ in industrialised countries in particular in the EU and the US. Currently a stable picture is difficult to obtain but a number of studies and re-search work are available to support this debate.
The main worries are raised by the various figures, often based on forecasting, about the allegedly high number of jobs leaving the industrialised countries. In fact the charac-teristics of Information Society Technologies and of their impact on related jobs, especially the digitalisation of services with the consequence of global access, increase the tradability of many types of service. These sectors are also likely to be those most affected by the pos-sibility of digital delivery and the trends seems to show an increase of this phenomenon. This determines the type of activities which are outsourced from Europe. Currently target activities are mainly software developments, data processing, sales, customer services, design and other creative functions as well as financial functions and management and Human Resource and training functions, as being identified by the EMERGENCE project (funded by the EU's Research Framework Programme). This confirms the trend reflected in media headlines that more and more white-collar jobs are concerned by the outsourc-ing activities.
Nevertheless the picture is more complex, in particular for Europe. There are different factors influencing the outsourcing of jobs. These factors can have a negative but also positive effect on job conservation or creation in the industrial outsourcing countries de-pendent on the company's restructuring strategies as e.g. under certain circumstances jobs are being created in these countries, often in higher value activities. Furthermore there are also more specific parameters which influence the scale of the phenomenon.
The main driver for organisations to use a global outsourcing strategy is cost reduction. This is often also considered as a success criteria for the outsourcing. Other drivers, cited by Hewitt Associates and the EMERGENCE project, are among others productivity improvements, focus on core competencies, the availability of specific rare skills, increases in flexibility and the ‘right’ attitude from employees. This indicates already some elements where policy has to become active.
In their drive to save costs, companies often neglect the influence of Human Capital on their global outsourcing strategy. These issues need to be addressed early in the planning process in order to optimise the benefits from global outsourcing. Important challenges to be tackled are good communication patterns to realise an efficient co-operation for man-aging the transition taking into account the corporate culture, knowledge learning and sharing, mutual cultural understanding as well as clearly defined working procedures and quality control. As an example, many organisations indicated that training costs and costs related to communication and cultural differences were higher than expected.
In response to these challenges trade unions, for example Uni-Europe, have developed strategies to deal with job migration. Some important steps are e.g. to engage actively with companies at an early stage to influence the planning and to better highlight the hid-den costs and consequences, as well as to reinforce the need for life-long learning to re-duce the risks of job migration (the higher the skill level the less likely the job will be sub-ject to migration). Some good practices of co-operation between companies and trade un-ions are the framework agreements which have been signed. Besides that there are a number of internationally agreed codes of practice and guidelines which could be used.
These surely important elements should be complemented with another view. In fact in order to reach sustainable solutions it is essential also to investigate carefully the situation and conditions in the supplier countries. On a narrow view, it might be sufficient from to go for agreements like the one the US proposed in March 2004: to press India to open up to imports of American investments, goods and services. The EU believes however that it is important to go further and to influence the working conditions in these countries through investments in human capital and in improving working conditions, at the very least ensuring respect for the core labour standards agreed by the ILO. This would allow to fight social dumping, to improve economic and social conditions in developing and other partner countries and to create a fair competition between the countries in the world. These are the orientations of the initiatives taken in particular by the European Commission and the ILO concerning the social dimension both of the Information Society and of globalisation more widely (see Commission Communication on the ‘The social di-mension of globalisation – the EU's policy contribution on extending the benefits to all’ (COM (2004) 383 final).

How to measure eWork in social surveys
GIOVANNA ALTIERI, FRANCESCA DELLA RATTA & CRISTINA OTERI

The multiple definitions of telework and eWork have dominated the debate on these issues causing immediate repercussions on measuring the phenomena. As stated by Qvortrup (1998), 'Measuring telework is like measuring an elastic: it all depends on how taut it is.'
Such complexity derives from the fact that telework is not a type of work (nor type of task or contractual form) but only one of the possible forms of conducting various types of work. It is thus a transversal and multidimensional concept which requires a set of indicators to measure it.
Indeed one of the objectives of the STILE project was to define indicators to detect teleworkers: for this aim a set of indicators was defined which could be inserted in the statistical inquiries on labour forces in Europe.
Initially, we analysed two possible strategies to detect teleworkers through a broad statistical survey:
a) by providing respondents with an exact definition of telework and asking them if they could categorise themselves in this work form;
b) by identifying teleworkers through an 'ex post' combination of different indicators on the main features of the phenomenon.

The first strategy, which has until now been used the most in inquiries on samples of the popula-tion, is easier to use but some problems do emerge in its application.
The first one is surely the difficulty choosing one of the definitions of telework available as any choice is bound to restrict or broaden the field of inquiry. Furthermore, any definition eventually risks becoming obsolete, compromising the continuity of future surveys.
By proposing a definition the respondents may be influenced by the social desirabil-ity/undesirability of their reply rather than give a true description of their situation.
Whereas with the cross tabulation (of indicators) approach it is not necessary to ask the respon-dents whether they consider themselves to be teleworkers as this can be discerned by combining several indicators on the main aspects of telework.
The essential aspects to detect teleworkers are those mentioned in the vast majority of defini-tions: the place where the worker carries out his job, the amount of time spent working at a dis-tance from the main office and the importance of the use of information and telematic technologies.
On the basis of these considerations the cross tabulation approach was selected and a set of in-dicators was proposed to capture both the core traits, indispensable to quantify the teleworkers and additional traits, useful to qualify the various forms of eWork.

On the basis of the indicators selected in the first phase of the project, a questionnaire was put to-gether and tested on 718 workers in Belgium, Italy, Hungary and Great Britain. This was a pilot inquiry aimed at testing the tool and not estimating the extension of telework therefore the results obtained through the inquiry must be considered to be an indication of the various forms and mo-dalities of eWork.
Apart from the questions on telework (main indicators) and on the work environment, the main indicators on the labour force (LFS) were inserted to ensure the comparability and congruence of the data surveyed in relation to current inquiries.
In the case of the pilot inquiry the cross tabulation approach proved to be highly productive as the combination of indicators allowed teleworkers to be detected as well as various typologies to be ascertained based principally on prevalent workplace and systematic working at a distance.
Variables on the use of technologies (improved in the final version of the questionnaire) were used only as a filter to distinguish the real teleworkers from those who work in a place other than the traditional office but without the help of ICT technologies (door to door sales reps, tailors, re-fuse collectors, drivers, etc.).

The starting point was to analyse the combination of the various workplaces mentioned by the re-spondents. Of those who supplied one reply it is possible to distinguish between traditional work-ers, or non teleworkers, as they declared working exclusively from the employer's premises; the mobile workers, distinguishing between those who use ICT technologies (mobile teleworkers) and those who don't (mobile workers) and the telehomeworkers who declared working exclusively from home.

In at least a third of the cases the reply wasn't so easy to interpret as the respondents indicated more than one response, declaring that they worked in their office but also at home or on the move or at the client's premises, highlighting the multilocational nature that some professions are taking on. The individuals who gave mixed replies have been called 'multilocational eWorkers,' a type of teleworker or eWorker that can be added to the more traditional telehomeworker and mobile tele-worker. As seems to be emerging in the countries in question, a new type of eWorker is becoming more common, superimposing itself on the classic division been the telehomeworker, mobile tele-worker and the telecentre worker.
Changes have occurred in the way these workers operate allowing them to conduct part of their work at a distance without completely transforming their work into full time telework (for example due to family problems, maternity, transferrals, etc.).
Being able to obtain this result is probably one of the positive consequences of the cross tabula-tion approach. In fact it is probable that a large part of those belonging to the 'multilocational eWorker' would not have been recognised as teleworkers in a statistical inquiry based on the defi-nition criterion.
Using the temporal variable on the amount of time spent working at a distance it is possible to further refine the typology. Those who declared working from a remote location for at least 20% of working time were considered to be stable teleworkers, giving rise to the following typology.
Naturally it is only one of the possible classifications as other combinations can be obtained by modifying the aggregations of data or utilising the indicators on use of technology. In the pilot in-quiry the prevalence of multilocational eWorker clearly emerges.

In conclusion, it can be stated that the most important questions to identify teleworkers are those on workplace and the percentage of time spent working at a distance. The use of information and telematic technologies allows telework to be distinguished from other types of work done from home for which ICT is not indispensable. This is surely the most complex dimension which is also susceptible to obsolescence. However it can supply relevant information allowing a distinction to be drawn between various types of technical organisation or levels of interconnection between workers (on-line and off-line) and between types of telework defined on the basis of various levels of importance of /necessity for ICT tools.
The choice to detect teleworkers through a combination of various indicators makes data man-agement more complex but it ensures that final data is more adaptable to user requirements. Fur-thermore, the combination of the indicators ensures better results in comparative inquiries as it is easier to identify comparable indicators of the three dimensions rather than use a definition which is attributed the same meaning in the various economic and cultural contexts.

Telework: the latest figures
JOANNE PRATT

The STILE project has developed a module for collecting reliable and comparable data about tele-work. The questions can be inserted into existing surveys. Because there is no agreed-upon defini-tion of ‘eWork’ or ‘telework’, the approach recommends asking a series of objective questions that pinpoint the location and intensity of work conducted at a distance from the employer. Telework or eWork can be defined at the time of data analysis, by selecting criteria that are meaningful to the research objectives.
This paper compares data collected from official labour force surveys conducted in Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The variations in ways the STILE module was adapted for each survey are discussed.
The STILE approach to measuring e-work will aid policy makers in following the growth of the trend in which workers use new technologies to work at locations distant from their employers’. The paper will conclude with recommendations for adopting the STILE approach and suggestions for further research.

eWork in the New Member Countries
Does it help to open new development paths?
PROF. DR. CSABA MAKÓ

The author is focusing on various dimension of the eWork diffusion in selected New Members’ State in comparative perspective with EU (15) countries. The introduction outlines various cycles of the transformation process in the CEE region, and localises e-economy in this process. As concerning the methodology, the paper represents an attempt to analyse the eWork diffusion in addition to the demand and supply side from the perspective of the labour process. In this relation, the author interprets eWork not as a new tool of working facilitated or enabled by ICT but as an organisational innovation. Due to this interpretation of eWork, the recommendations formulated both for policy makers and researchers are calling attention not only to the complexity of changes required by the successful implementation of eWork but also to its often neglected social-organisational and cultural context of these changes. In this perspective, it is necessary to stress the importance of the production paradigms and its national variations. For example, more flexibility in the manpower and skill use related to the post-fordist work organisation supposing the adequate ICT level in the firms may speed up the diffusion of various forms of eWork. While the dominance of the fordist type work organisation may slow-down the speed of implementing eWork even in the firms which are equipped with excellent quality of ICT equipment. In stressing the organisational innovation character of eWork, it would be necessary to make more efforts both in the communities of practitioners and researchers to better understand and overcome the social-cultural and economic barriers (e.g. industrial age management culture in the labour process) of the flexible use of manpower and knowledge. In this relation it is necessary to call attention to the significant role of the ‘time space’ necessary to change both individual and organisational cultures which is essential in the ‘smooth’ implementation and practice of eWork.
This approach stresses the need for co-ordinated efforts of various social and economic actors (e.g. government, business and educational community) to diminish the possible risks of the digital ‘divide’ both in the economy and in the society. In relation to the economy, among other things, the paper indicates the clear gap in the field of innovation (including organisational innovation) between the large firms and small and medium sized (SMEs) ones. In the case of the society, the author calls attention to the visible inequalities in chances to participate in the eEconomy (and in the access to the digital goods). For instance, the school age children belonging to the families of advantageous or disadvantageous social-economic status have significant differences not only in the Internet access but also in possibilities to learn foreign languages. For the countries of minority languages (e.g. Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic etc.), the participation in the e-economy related employment is extremely limited without the foreign – especially English – language skill.
During the presentation of the various issues briefly described here, the author is using the empirical evidences of various international comparative researches – financed mainly by the EU 5th framework projects – employing variety of research tools (e.g. statistical analysis, surveys, case studies, action studies etc.).

Opening the black box of coding practices in Europe: findings from the STILE experiment
PROF. URSULA HUWS & PETER VAN DER HALLEN

The development of an eEconomy poses major challenges to the conceptual basis of traditional schemes for classifying industries and occupations, by blurring the boundaries between the old categories as well as giving birth to new ones. In particular, an increasingly differentiated group of activities involved in the supply of business services can be seen as representing a new phase in the division of labour, which has implications not only for the classification of economic activities within national economies but also for their global distribution. In the context of an overview of this new spatial division of labour and the elaboration of value chains which it represents, this pa-per will present the results of an experiment carried out within the frame of the STILE project in which coders in five EU Member States were asked to code 150 fictionalised descriptions of ‘new’ occupations and 150 descriptions of ‘new’ establishments in order to test the extent to which the international classification systems, ISCO (for occupations) and NACE (for sectors) currently cap-ture the new realities of the eEconomy. The presentation will be made jointly with Peter van der Hallen.

Reflections on the STILE experiment and conclusions in view of principles of occupational classification systems
PROF. PETER ELIAS

Reflections on the STILE experiment in view of the on-going ISCO-88 updating process
EIVIND HOFFMANN

Potential offshoring of ICT-using occupations
DESIRÉE VAN WELSUM / GRAHAM VICKERY

The paper looks at where ICT skills, at different levels of complexity, are found in the economy. It takes a new approach by identifying and characterising industrial sectors ac-cording to their share of ICT-skilled employment, on the basis of both a narrow ICT skills definition (IT specialists only) and a broad definition (IT specialist skills, but also basic and advanced ICT user skills). In addition, it identifies ICT-using industries by examining the degree of actual usage of ICTs rather than investment in ICTs. The analysis covers Europe, the United States, Japan, Korea and Australia. The ratio of ICT-skilled employ-ment to total employment at industry level shows that certain services sectors (computer and data processing services, financial services, insurance) and certain manufacturing sec-tors (office equipment and computers, precision instruments, electronic equipment) tend to have a high share of ICT-skilled employment in total employment. Wholesaling also tends to have a relatively high ratio of ICT-skilled employment to total employment, while retailing does not, except in certain retail sectors in the United States. Finally, the ICT-skilled employment measure is combined with productivity data to evaluate sector performance in Europe. Results suggest that a high share of ICT-skilled employment in total employment is associated with a high level of value added per employee at industry level.