Reviewing the 2018 OECD Jobs Strategy – anything new under the sun?

This article analyses the documents released by the OECD at the end of May 2018 launching a revised Jobs Strategy. The analysis frames the new initiative in the context of the two previous Jobs Strategies of 1994 and 2006. We pose the general question of whether continuity or discontinuity is the prevailing theme, along with a specific question concerning the significance of new themes of job quality and inclusive growth, given the documents’ simultaneous endorsement of the older theme of flexibility-enhancing policies to ensure a labour market functioning without rigidities. Flexibility had been the central feature of previous Jobs Strategies, although there was also a nod in the direction of an alternative route to better employment performance in the 2006 revision. The 2018 documents assert that the new strategy represents a significant departure from the previous iterations. This article provides a critical evaluation of this claim.