Introduction to the Handbook on Labour Markets in Transition: Promoting Resilience in a World in Flux

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the profound and rapid transformations reshaping labour markets resulting from megatrends - digital, demographic and green, and repeated economic shocks. It traces the needed evolution of labour market policies, stressing the need to adapt the arsenal of measures with a focus on prevention and resilience. Given the nature of ongoing transformations, the authors insist on the need to better anticipate their consequences on labour dynamics and skills needs. They call for making life-long learning a reality for all workers, introduce mechanisms for adapting key labour and social policies during crises and help workers and employers better anticipate changes. This chapter also offers a roadmap to help readers navigate the 25 chapters of the Handbook stressing how each of them sheds light on these important transformations in the labour markets and on the needed policy responses.