Staffing in the Welfare Sector

The aim of this project is to provide a comprehensive account of how workforce composition, wage levels, and job attractiveness have evolved in the publicly funded sector over recent decades. The motivation is that many core services—such as healthcare, elderly care, education, and policing—face persistent challenges in recruiting and retaining staff.

The focus is on publicly funded activities regardless of provider. The project analyzes how the supply of skills has changed relative to the rest of the economy, including developments in education, ability measures, gender, and foreign background. A key issue concerns the role of formal qualifications and the potential trade-off between ensuring certified competence and creating barriers to entry.

The project also examines how wage premia and wage trajectories have evolved for workers with similar qualifications. By analyzing mobility across sectors, the allocation of trained personnel, and retirement behavior, it provides a broad picture of these sectors as employers and their attractiveness.

Three areas receive particular attention: the role of immigrant labor in staffing, the implications of technological change for future labor demand, and how private providers affect wages and working conditions. Overall, the project contributes new evidence to a highly policy-relevant area where the research base remains limited.