WP 1. New labour market developments in the context of digitalisation and social change

Rapid labour market developments (including consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic) create new challenges for employees and employers, generate new forms of labour, changes in working conditions and in the structure of the labour force. This in turn calls for development of legal regulations and human capital, adjustment with cultural challenges as well as enlarge possibilities for the integration of people from different countries and with different ethnicities. The role of Baltic-Nordic integration will particularly increase due to spatial and cultural proximity as well as strong economic links and mobility of people. Labour market relations have changed substantially during recent years. People are becoming more flexible in terms of working hours and work organisation. Location is losing importance as many tasks can be done remotely. Emerging of new labour market platforms and new occupations, as well as growing share of labour force engaged in entrepreneurship (either as the main job or as the second job) leads to new forms of labour relations which often coexist with outdated regulation or regulatory vacuum. This calls for the development of knowledge-based revision of employment protection legislation, social security systems and taxation. Increased mobility of workers and growing importance or remote cooperation contributes to cultural diversity of labour force. Benefits of diverse workforce in terms of productivity and innovation come along with new challenges in terms of cross-cultural interaction.

WP1 includes the following tasks

Task 1.1. The developments of new forms of labour relations and teamwork in the Baltics before and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Task 1.2. Performance of return migrants and immigrants in the Baltic labour markets.

Task 1.3. Use of geodata to look at access to public services as an important determinant of the choice of place of residence by return migrants in Latvia.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Mihails Hazans

University of Latvia, Latvia

E-mail: mihazan@lanet.lv