Employment Services as a Public Service

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter provides a historical and comparative examination of employment services in the light of their ‘public service’ nature and vocation as developed through the 20th century. It also provides a reasoned taxonomy of the various activities and functions performed by public employment services in Europe, and in particular of job-intermediation, unemployment benefit management, skills formation, the provision of active labour market policies, and the management of ‘making work pay’ initiatives. This is followed by an analysis of the various modes by which PES have been providing their services, ranging from public monopoly arrangements to public-private coexistence systems, to market and quasi-market systems. It is argued that in recent years, and particularly with the demise of monopolistic regimes, the role of private employment services as providers of employment services has been bolstered just as the relevance of PES has progressively faced a decline and reconfiguration.