SEEK Annual Conference "Engines for More and Better Jobs in Europe" at ZEW

High unemployment figures in Southern Europe, demographic change and skilled worker shortage in Germany: Which solutions can be provided by science, politics, and industry to achieve the goals of the EU growth strategy "Europe 2020", integrative growth for more and better jobs in Europe? These questions have been discussed on April 25 and 26, 2013 at the third conference of the research programme SEEK (Strengthening Efficiency and Competitiveness in the European Knowledge Economies) at ZEW. Some 150 participants from politics, industry, science, and public institutions are expected to attend the event.

Within the framework of a policy-economic forum on the first conference day, the keynote speaker Frank-Jürgen Weise, Chairman of the Federal Employment Agency, talked about the development of the labour market in Germany.  Further high-profile speakers were Steffano Scarpetta, Deputy Director for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs at the OECD, and Rita Asplund, Research Director at ETLA (Research Institute of the Finnish Economy). On the second conference day international scholars presented their research results regarding the conference topic within numerous scientific sessions.