The Japanese labour market is characterised by high employment rates for men and older workers, and a low unemployment rate. Over the past two decades, female participation has risen, while disparities in the labour market conditions of workers have grown. Further efforts are needed to promote...

Many OECD countries have in recent decades experienced periods of relatively rapid growth in nonemployment benefit expenditures and recipiency rates which have not subsequently been reversed. By contrast, in a number of OECD countries the number of unemployment benefit recipients has declined...

Strategies to 'activate' the unemployed with the help of high-quality employment services have continuously gained importance in the policy debate. The purpose of this report is to examine how activation strategies and the performance of employment services are addressed in three countries which...

Le taux de chômage au Luxembourg - minime pendant les années 70 et 80 puis en forte augmentation, bien que toujours bas par rapport aux autres pays, dans les années 90 - est depuis 2004 à près de 5%. Ce rapport compare d’abord la situation au Luxembourg avec celle de "pays de référence"...

The OECD has collected data for public expenditure on labour market programmes (LMPs) continuously since the mid-1980s. For most longstanding Member countries, data according to a consistent classification system and definition of scope are available for reference years 1985 to 2002. Starting...

In Ireland the placement function of the Public Employment Service (PES) is primarily within FÁS, the Training and Employment Authority, which is supervised by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE). But employment counselling services are also provided by the “Local...

The Korean labor market has created many jobs over the past several decades, accompanying rapid economic growth. More recently, this favorable job performance has gone hand-in-hand with a rapid increase of temporary employment and other flexible or atypical work arrangements (usually called...

This report examines the performance of the Public Employment Service (PES) and the effectiveness of activation strategies in Finland. It covers the role of the key actors, the placement function of the PES, the structure of out-of-work benefits and the related incentives and disincentives for...