Though information about jobs passed through personal networks has been central to the labor market integration of immigrants in the United States, its role in the economic absorption of immigrants in Germany, where jobs are scarcer and employers more likely to demand formal qualifications, is less clear. Through analysis of German Socio‐Economic Panel data, we discovered that nearly half of all immigrant‐origin job changers found their positions through networks and that the most vulnerable to unemployment – the young and the less educated – were especially likely to rely on them. Also, jobs found through networks were as likely to lead to improved working conditions as jobs acquired through more formal means. These findings have implications both for debates about assimilation and for social policy.

This study examines how personal disposable income is distributed across regions, countries and larger geographical areas in the EU25 and how this distribution changed during the second half of the 1990s. Moreover, it assesses the "statistical" effect resulting from the enlargement of the European Union, and therefore the community of people for which inequality is measured. A three-level spatial decomposition of the overall personal inequality in the EU reveals that a fifth of its amount is attributed to the east-west income gap and that intra-regional inequality accounts for three quarters. The study detects a convergence of both average national income levels and within-country personal income inequality. Inequality is rising primarily in the Scandinavian social-democratic welfare states and decreasing in the Mediterranean countries of the EU15. In Eastern Central Europe, the rapid growth of inequality which had been observable during the first years of transition has come to an end.

This study analyses to which extent the classification of countries as developing corresponds with their actual development level. It tracks the evolution of the development status classification schemes (DSCSs) of international organisations over time, identifies three broad concepts of a developing country, based on the social sciences literature, and analyses the degree of correspondence between classifications and concepts, based on eight indicators. The results suggest that development status is a fairly accurate measure of development. All DSCSs strongly correspond with all indicators analysed. Over time, the outcomes of DSCSs have become increasingly heterogeneous. As a result, different classification schemes match different concepts. Schemes of a first generation, which emerged before the 1990s, and which nominate countries for classes, correspond mainly with concepts focusing on difficult starting points or an early stage in systemic transition, whereas schemes of a second generation, set up in the 1990, which classify countries based on specified criteria, typically reflect a welfare-based concept. The paper argues that the growing heterogeneity of DSCSs and deficits in their documentation negatively impact on the quality of international official statistics. It makes proposals for the further development of DSCSs, also in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

We report on five years of capacity building designed to improve the skills of producers and users of international trade statistics all over the world, with a particular focus on developing countries. This training programme is a joint activity between UNCTAD, UNSD and WTO, based on an innovative (Blended Learning) approach, combining e-learning and face-to-face workshops. It is adapted to local needs, uses the pool of experts working at international organisations, and ensures continuous review and enhancement of the applied methods and tools. The results reviewed in this paper confirm that the program has reached the target population. Furthermore, it has global coverage and is gender-balanced. During the five years since the programme has begun, participation in the courses has increased considerably; success rates have risen from 72% to 79% and satisfaction rates from 77% to 88%. Plans for the future include delivering training in additional languages, increasing interactivity, and adding new components addressing specific training needs.