Developing Effective Employment Services Book

The basic purpose of employment services is to expedite the exchange of labor between employers and job seekers. The goal of these services is to promote labor mobility, productivity, and improvements in social welfare. This study finds that employment services can pay for themselves. However, not all countries will benefit equally from such investments. The returns are lower where the informal sector dominates an economy and where a country is small and informal networks are easier to establish. Also, when an economy is stagnant, and the demand for labor is depressed, these services are not as effective and other interventions may command a greater authority. The report distinguishes between " core " and " support " employment services. The study pushes for the opening of markets to private employment services to lower pressure on public budgets and provide an array of options for a diverse range of clients. It also defends the public sector ' s role in delivery of core services based on evidence that these services are cost effective; help ensure services are provided to unemployed, low income, and semi skilled clients who often fall outside the interests of the private sector; and help administer support programs including unemployment benefits. The report recommends that a balance be maintained between decentralization of service delivery and the need to promote national policy coordination and mobility. In countries which encounter high unemployment during periods of structural adjustment the capacity of private financing of employment services will be stretched and inequities will arise. Under such conditions, where the long term benefits of adjustments are shared by thepopulation at large, financing from general revenues will improve both efficiency and equity.