NATIONAL LABOUR MARKET POLICIES

Basic Information Reports

• Developments at a Glance
• "Policies" and the Five Action Areas of Essen

Overall Developments

• Employment Policy of the Belgian Federal Government for 1998
• Employment Promotion Measures - Preliminary Draft Bill

• Growth in the Use of Permanent Employment Contracts
• The "Social Economy" within the Framework of Spain's Medium-Term Employment Programme

• Corporate Reorganisation Law

• 1997 Follow-up Report on the Finnish Multi-Annual Employment Programme

• Taking Forward the Employability Agenda
• Further Developments in the "New Deal" and Other Employment Initiatives

Placement

• Careers Advice: Provisional Results for the Year 1996/97

• The ANPE in the Year 2000*

• Reform of the Employment Services: Some Initiatives from the Employment Exchange in the Province of Rome

Job Creation

• New Help for the Unemployed in Starting up their Own Businesses

• Incentives for the Reemployment of Managers to Assist Small Businesses

• Start-up Programme

Training

• Successful Youth Measures
• Apprenticeships for Adults

• The Vocational Training Reform Project - Flexible Structures and Modern Occupations

• Programme to Link Training and Employment Measures

• Recognition of Training Establishments

• An Education Programme within the Information Technology Sector
• Effects of Occupationally Targeted Employment Training

• The University for Industry

Social Protection, Unemployment Benefits

• Removal of Social Security Obstacles to Unpaid Leave
• Performing Unpaid Activities while Retaining Social Assistance Benefit

• A General and Unified Unemployment Benefit System

Special Categories of Workers

• Strengthening of Measures in Relation to the Long-Term Unemployed
• Flexi-Jobs

• New Information Unit for Women

• Parliament Passes New Act on Sheltered Employment
• Proposal Regarding the (Re)Integration in Employment of the Disabled

• A Grant for Youth Activation

Working Time

• Reducing Social Insurance Contributions in the Interest of Redistributing Work

• Partial Early Retirement Schemes Increasingly Implemented in Collective Agreements

• The Reduction of Working Hours in Italy

• A Generation Shift on the Swedish Labour Market

Miscellaneous

• Employment Promotion through Support for SMEs

• International Meeting on Employment Policy (RIPE 97)

• New Employment and Economic Development Centres Established

Centrefold

• Index of articles published in nos. 55-59

FOCUS

• Profiling and Referral to Services of the Long-Term Unemployed: Experiences and Lessons from Several Countries

EU – European Commission DG EMPL/A/2 J II 27, Rue de la Loi 200, B-1049 Brussels – Belgium GHK Consulting Ltd 30 St. Paul's Square, Birmingham. B3 1QZ E-mail: eeo@ghkint.com