Job placement as a public task and a private service : reorganisation of job placement from an internationally comparative perspective

Abstract

"In the past 10 years there have been extensive reorganisation processes worldwide in the field of job placement. These have concerned firstly the organisation of the job placement system, that is the interaction of public and private job placement services. Secondly public job placement services have been reformed in numerous ways. Both of these issues are dealt with in this study, which is based on a broad international comparison. The issue of the organisation of the job placement system concerns above all the optimisation of job matching on a national level. In contrast to ten years ago, the co-existence system dominates worldwide today, in other words a more or less free juxtaposition of public and private job placement services. The reason for this was the massive liberalisation processes particularly in western Europe. In this decade at least in 9 of the 28 countries included in the study, the so-called 'placement monopoly' has been abolished and private job placement has been permitted for all occupational groups. With regard to the effects of the liberalisation, the study reaches three results. Firstly there is apparently hardly any competition between public and private job placement services. Private job placement is more of a supplement to the public placement services. Secondly there are good arguments for the co-operation of public and private placement services, but nevertheless so far too little use has been made of the available possibilities of co-operation between the two. Thirdly it took some time after liberalisation was effected in the countries concerned before private agencies were able to gain a foothold on the job placement market. The objective of the reorganisation efforts in the field of public job placement is the optimisation of the limited public resources. This concerns above all the extent and the type of state intervention in search activities. Using a variety of examples the study shows what kind of reforms have been carried out and with what intentions. Three aspects were foremost in the reforms customer-orientation, decentralisation and controlling. It should be taken into consideration, however, that in contrast to the monopoly situation which used to prevail in general, in the present co-existence situation a concentration of the use of public funds for particular tasks seems to be justified. In this way questions of the evaluation and thus the optimisation of public job placement activities gain in importance." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Walwei, U. (1996): Arbeitsvermittlung als öffentliche Aufgabe und privatwirtschaftliche Dienstleistung. Reorganisation der Arbeitsvermittlung aus einer international vergleichenden Perspektive. In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Vol. 29, No. 1, p. 54-72.