Employment Services in an International Comparison

The rapid change in the structure of the labour market presents new challenges to public employment services. The increasing differentiation of tasks, the general rise in unemployment, and the need to react speedily to regional labour market problems, to coordinate interest groups, plants and educational institutions in their quest to match demand and supply necessitate a reorganisation of employment services. A precondition of a highly flexible labour market policy is de-centralisation in data gathering and in policy implementation. Detailed information on the development of labour market structures and on the impact of technologies and changes in the industrial structure on labour demand is a sine-qua-non of active labour market policies.