Measuring and assessing the impact of basic skills on labour market outcomes

work on the effect of basic literacy and numeracy skills on labour market outcomes arises from a recent report by Sir Claus Moser, which investigated the basic skills of English adults (DfEE, 1999). This report suggested that approximately 20 % of adults in England, i.e. nearly seven million people, have severe literacy difficulties, whilst around 40 % have some numeracy problems. Furthermore, the report showed that this ‘skills gap ’ is one of the worst in Europe. Other recent research has confirmed this gloomy picture, indicating that as many as one in five UK adults have literacy problems1. Although this government is committed to tackling poor literacy and numeracy2, much of the emphasis thus far has been on finding ways to improve the basic skills of those who are still in the school system, with initiatives such as the National Strategies for Numeracy and Literacy. However, these initiatives will obviously not help adults, who have already left the education system, to overcome their numeracy and literacy problems. Instead, Moser suggested a National Strategy for Adult Basic Skills, with clear and ambitious national targets to reduce the number of functionall