What works for employment records: international practices & implications for the United States

Abstract

The modernization of employment records (ERs) has become central to 21st-century labor market policy, economic mobility, and social inclusion. ERs are structured administrative data documenting an individual’s employment history, including who did what, for whom, where, for how long, and with what outcomes. Around the world, peer countries have built integrated, real-time, and worker-centric ER systems that reduce administrative burden and unlock transformative insights for policy and practice. This report benchmarks a wide range of international practices to inform U.S. stakeholders pursuing modernization efforts. While these initiatives necessarily build on the unemployment insurance wage record system, true modernization requires evolving toward a public-domain, worker-centered employment records infrastructure that serves broader economic and inclusion goals.