Number of Placements to be Increased by 2% per annum
Number of Placements to be Increased by 2% per annum
Despite the difficult economic context the Dutch labour market authority is sticking to its target of placing 2% more unemployed persons in employment each year for the next four years. The target of 167,500 vacancies by the year 1997 is to be achieved by improving the quality of service and intensifying contacts with firms. The labour market authority expects that this will also help solve the problem of difficult-to-fill vacancies.
By increasingly focusing on labour-market target groups the authority intends to maintain its record of roughly equal placement rates for women, the unemployed from ethnic minorities and the long-term unemployed.
5.3.1.1. Dilemma
In seeking to realise their policy aims the regional labour market offices will increasingly have to face up to a number of dilemmas. In future, the policy approach will have to seek to establish a balance between reducing existing unemployment and unemployment prevention, and between the fight against long-term joblessness and the short-term unemployment due largely to mass redundancies.
Due to regional differences on the Dutch labour market, no central targets have been established in these areas. Job-placement in the regions must, however, aim to be both efficient and just.
5.3.1.2. Cooperation with firms
The attempts being made to intensify cooperation with business enterprises are to concentrate on small and medium-sized firms. The regional labour market authorities should - not least in order to strengthen their market position - cooperate with the small and medium-sized firms and branches in their region, as these have a great employment potential.
The aim of improving the services offered to employers is to be realised by intensifying enterprise contacts and other accompanying measures.
5.3.1.3. Women and ethnic minorities
The success of the authority's "target-group-oriented" policies depends heavily on the extent to which employment offices exploit their contacts with firms in order to place unemployed persons in job vacancies. If it proves possible to ensure that women continue to be placed in line with overall placement success rates, the authority will be able to place around 57,500 women a year in a permanant job from the start of 1994. If the same condition is fulfilled with regard to the unemployed from ethnic minorities, around 20,000 placements per year from 1994 can be expected for this group.
5.3.1.4. The long-term unemployed
The labour market authority aims to achieve a placement-success rate for the long-term unemployed equal to the average by 1996. The planned total for 1994 is 46,300 placements of long-term unemployed, rising to 62,000 by 1996. The labour market authority is to cooperate with the social-insurance institutions with the aim of introducing a service tailored to the needs of the long-term unemployed.
Preventive measures are the best way of combating long-term unemployment. At the earliest possible opportunity the employment offices must select unemployed persons threatened by long-term unemployment, and offer them additional measures. Such measures include the provision of better information, and an improved selection of fixed-term job offers (in cooperation with temporary work agencies). The regional labour market authorities should be able to further intensify their services to employers operating in branches where temporary work is common, particularly in those areas where the lack of job offers is leading to large-scale moonlighting. Intensive cooperation with sectoral social-insurance institutions and local-authority social security offices is indispensable here.
5.3.1.5. Other target groups
The problems of youth unemployment are at the core of the evaluation of the employment guarantee law for young people. The approach to be taken to placement for the partially disabled will depend on the results of four experiments which are being conducted in the course of this year in cooperation with the "Federation of Branch Associations for the Social Insurance".
The labour market authority is also improving its services for the highly skilled unemployed. An inter-regional information system on demand and supply on this sub-market is being developed. Some placement officers will specialise on work for this group.
These guidelines have been published in the "National Medium-Term Policy Framework" (1994-98) - Landelijk meerjarenbeleidskader - of the Central Labour Market Authority.
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