Evaluating the Structure and Performance of the Job Network

It is argued that the key role of active labour market policies is to be an essential complement to macro policies to reduce unemployment. Adverse quantitative evaluations may show that the macro policies are at fault. Moreover, in Australia the data is not adequate for such evaluations to be more than very broad indicators. To write off Intensive Assistance as a complete failure is premature. It is better to examine ways in which Intensive Assistance could be improved. A comparison with Work for the Dole suggests that a lack of a significant work experience component is an important reason why Intensive Assistance does not perform better.