Labour market and education

Labour market and education

The focus of labour market and education research is the transformation taking place in work and adaptations to it. Technological development, globalisation and demographic changes affect the labour market in many ways and pose challenges to labour force and education policy. This research group investigates these phenomena thoroughly.

Work transition and adaptation to it
Competence and education
Labour market dynamics and institutions
Labour and education policy

Personnel of the research group

Kauhanen, Antti

Kauhanen, Antti

Research Director

antti.kauhanen@etla.fi

050 569 7627

Labour market, education economics...

Virtanen, Hanna

Virtanen, Hanna

Chief Research Scientist

hanna.virtanen@etla.fi

044 589 0448

Education, labour market

Tuhkuri, Joonas

Tuhkuri, Joonas

Senior Fellow Researcher

joonas.tuhkuri@gmail.com

040 023 9818

Labor Economics, Technology and...

Kalmbach, Aino

Kalmbach, Aino

Researcher (on maternity leave 19.6.2024–)

aino.kalmbach@etla.fi

050 547 9001

Labour market, education economics...

Riukula, Krista

Riukula, Krista

Researcher (on maternity leave 7.6.2024–)

krista.riukula@etla.fi

040 744 6261

Labour market, education

Vanhala, Pekka

Vanhala, Pekka

Research Secretary, Project Officer

pekka.vanhala@etla.fi

044 465 0158

Labour markets&education, Horizon2020 administration

Selected research

Research began 2025 Research ends 2025

How is public-sector wage formation managed in different European countries?

This project examines public-sector wage formation in different European countries. Wage formation in the public sector is an important theme in all European countries because earnings development in the public sector directly affects the financial position of the public

Research began 2023 Research ends 2025

The labor market for early childhood education teachers

There exists a shortage of qualified early childhood education teachers across all municipalities in Finland. This issue has prompted significant concern due to the widely acknowledged far-reaching implications of teaching quality, with the qualification of early childhood education teachers

Research began 2023 Research ends 2027

Education and Inclusive Growth

The Academy of Finland’s Research Council for Culture and Society has granted Hanna Virtanen, a chief research scientist at Etla, Academy Research Fellow funding. The four-year project “Education and inclusive growth” begins in September 2023. Academy Research Fellowship funding

Research began 2022 Research ends 2025

Evaluation of Continuous Learning Participation

Etla and the Labour Institute for Economic Research LABORE are evaluating two research funded by the Service Centre for Continuous Learning and Employment (Secle) the promotion of continuous learning. The aim of the studies is to determine how participation

Research began 2022 Research ends 2024

The Attractiveness of Finland as a Location for Productive Companies and Talented People

This research project aims to produce new, policy‐relevant information on factors that enhance the attractiveness of Finland to productive companies and talented individuals. Maintaining the Finnish welfare state requires robust economic growth. To achieve this, Finland needs to increase

Research began 2021 Research ends 2024

Life course and economic implications of demographic change (LIFECON)

This research project provides a broad understanding of the causes, consequences and solutions related to population ageing. It examines various phases of the individual life course, including family formation, working life and health and care at the end of

Research began 2023 Research ended 2024

AI in the working life – what will happen to Finland’s competitiveness?

The basic elements of artificial intelligence are decades old. New in the field are, among other things, easily accessible services that utilize generative artificial intelligence and large language models, which "understand" natural language and produce analysis, language, visualizations or

Research began 2023 Research ended 2024

How Methods of Completing Secondary Education Affect Economic Outcomes

In Finland, it is possible for students in secondary education to complete both high school and vocational studies. They can be completed either consecutively or in parallel as a dual qualification. However, the effects of obtaining a dual qualification

Research began 2022 Research ended 2024

The effect of company-specific bargaining on the targeting of wage increases

In Europe, the direction of bargaining on terms of employment has been from centralised negotiation systems towards more decentralised systems, which means that negotiations are moving closer to company-specific bargaining at the company level. However, Finland’s bargaining system has

Research began 2022 Research ended 2023

Education and skills need of green transition (VISIOS)

The aim of this research project is to produce information that supports meeting the skills and education needs of the green transition under Finland's sustainable grwoth agenda. The main goal of this project is to study and describe extensively

Research began 2021 Research ended 2023

Is the change in the collective bargaining system leading to wage reductions?

The collective bargaining system has a significant impact on the competitiveness of industry. This research project investigates how company-specific bargaining affects the wage levels and their dispersion. The project uses the income register to study how individuals' wages change

Research began 2021 Research ended 2022

Flexibility and adaptability of labor market system in global competition

This research project examines the link between labor market system and employment in the light of the economic literature. The project also describes how negotiation systems are decentralized in Sweden, Denmark and Germany. The project answers following research questions:

Research began 2017 Research ended 2023

Promotions, Wages, and Worker Mobility across Firms

The objective of this project is to go beyond the prior literature on career and wage dynamics by studying the interplay between within-firm careers and job mobility, which is an important unexplored area in the field of personnel economics.

Research began 2019 Research ended 2021

Urban Growth – GSIP Vantaa

Urban Growth - GSIP Vantaa (Growth and Social Investment Pacts (GSIP) for Local Companies in the City of Vantaa) is an EU Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) initiative that aims at improving employees’ skills at companies with low-skilled workforce. GSIPs

Research began 2020 Research ended 2021

Is it worth investing in adult education?

Hundreds of millions of euros are spend on adult education in Finland each year. In Finland it is hardly known whether adult education is improving employment, adapting to job revolution or development of earnings. This project is extensively exploring

Research began 2020 Research ended 2020

Meta-analysis of the effectiveness of labor policy

Achieving the government’s 75% employment target requires decisive action to improve employment. Increasing the employment rate will only be successful if the measures taken are effective. Such measures may relate to active labor market policies, unemployment schemes, invalidity benefit

Research began 2018 Research ended 2020

The effect of regional availability of upper secondary education

We seek to understand how institutional factors in the supply of education affect the upper-secondary education choices of individuals, their educational attainment, and labor market outcomes later in their careers. We exploit the variation in the education supply over

Research began 2018 Research ended 2018

A review of research assessing the effects of active labour market policy measures

This project has produced a concise, popular review of national economic research assessing the effects of active labour market policy measures undertaken in Finland. The report is written in Finnish and will be published in early 2019.

Research began 2016 Research ended 2017

Student selection to higher education and speeding up studies

An aim of the project was to study how applying and access to higher education have changed as a consequence of the student selection reforms and other policy action related to the aim of speeding up studies and, whether

Research began 2017 Research ended 2018

The effects of wage subsidies on the employability and employment

The aim of the project has been to comprehensively evaluate the impact of wage subsidies on unemployed persons’ subsequent employment and earnings, whereby the focus has been on the system of wage subsidies in place in the early 2010s

Research began 2016 Research ended 2019

Occupational restructuring challenges competencies

The central idea of the research is to comprehensively assess the role of competencies - their acquisition, maintenance, development and renewal - in enhancing successful labour market transition, as well as stabilized employment and re-entry after non-employment in times

Research began 2016 Research ended 2019

Better late than never?

Better late than never? School, training and work for late upper secondary school completers in the Nordic countries is a comparative Nordic study concerning young people who do not complete upper secondary schooling on regular time. The primary goal

Research began 2016 Research ended 2017

The effect of education on crime and labor market outcomes

This study examined how the admission success to upper secondary education and participation in the post-compulsory schooling affect crime behavior and labor market outcomes. Each year almost five percent of the cohort graduating from compulsory education fails to receive

Research began 2015 Research ended 2017

Workplace innovations, productivity, and employee well-being

The aim of this research project was to evaluate the impact of high involvement management that stresses the importance of worker autonomy on both firm performance and various measures of subjective well-being at work. Management styles are an important

Research began 2012 Research ended 2017

Career and wage dynamics within and between firms

The fields of personnel and organizational economics have started to develop and test models of the internal workings of firms, paying particular attention to careers within firms. This project took a new approach on career and wage dynamics by

ETLA in social media

ETLA in Instagram

ETLA in LinkedIn

ETLA in YouTube

ETLA Economic Research

Arkadiankatu 23 B
00100 HELSINKI

+358 (09) 609 900