The International Social Security Association (ISSA) gathered members and experts from around the world in Brussels, Belgium to discuss responses to shortage occupations and their linkages to social security. Discussions were stimulated by a new ISSA technical report on the topic.
The ISSA Technical Seminar: Modern policy making to tackle shortage occupations, hosted by the Belgian National Employment Office (Office national de l’emploi – ONEM) on 15–16 May 2024, gathered around 80 participants from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe. The event was organized in collaboration with the ISSA Technical Commission on Employment Policies and Unemployment Insurance (TC Employment), which produced the comprehensive background report Policy trends for tackling shortage occupations that was presented and discussed during the event.
The report provided new insights into key labour market trends and developments in shortage occupations which were deliberated in depth and complemented by perspectives from the Organization for Co-operation and Development (OECD). A further focus was on the intersection between informal work and common shortage occupations, and the lack of social security in the informal sector.
Examples based on sources from both the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the ISSA underscored the need for quality working conditions and comprehensive social security to attract workers to shortage occupations. Encouraging progress has been observed in the formalization of domestic workers in many countries, among which Belgium and France have developed sector-specific approaches, including the use of service vouchers, embedded within broader national strategies and institutional frameworks.
The technical seminar was complemented by a webinar as its final technical session, which featured both onsite and online presentations of good practices from Argentina, Canada, China and the Netherlands, and at the same time opened the discussion to the broader ISSA membership. It was the first time for the ISSA to organize such a hybrid event, which paved the way for a new era of experiential engagement among ISSA members that combines the advantages of real and virtual encounters.
The technical seminar and its back-to-back webinar were highly appreciated by both physical and virtual audiences who could exchange views with colleagues and peers, keep abreast of the recent developments and trends worldwide, and showcase their national good practices in tackling shortage occupations. As a next step, the TC Employment plans to organize another technical seminar on promoting sustainable employment in the region of Asia and the Pacific in the first half of 2025.