Market share and market segment of public employment services

After an introductory discussion of market share and market failure in job matching, the results of two empirical analyses are reported. The first is a cross national comparison of the importance of the public employment service (PES) as a job search channel in 12 EU states based on a special tabulation from the Eurostat Community Labour Force Survey; the second is an in-depth study of the role of the PES in job finding in Germany based on data drawn from 10 waves of the German socio-economic panel, 1984-1993. Briefly stated, the principal findings of the cross-national comparison are: 1) The PES does not primarily compete with private employment services (PRES), even in countries where they are permitted, because most job seekers use other formal and informal search channels (advertisements, direct applications to employers, friends and acquaintances etc.); 2) The clientele served by PRES is surprisingly heterogeneous and differs only in degree from that served by the PES, which suggests that PES and PRES are complementary not because they serve markedly different clienteles - as sometimes assumed - but because most PRES are temporary work agencies with similar clienteles.