Local Employment Agencies Research Articles

Assessing Forced Labor and Standards in Malaysian Palm Oil Industry

The Malaysian palm oil industry has been subject to criticism for its unsustainable practices and the prevalence of forced labour. To address these concerns, Malaysia has implemented the National Action Plan on Forced Labour (NAPFL) in accordance with international standards. This study evaluates the implementation of NAPFL and international standards in the Malaysian palm oil industry through a literature review. The findings suggest that although progress has been made, there are still gaps in compliance within the industry. In particular, the issue of labour in smallholder palm oil plantations requires a community-based management approach, whereby smallholders can work together to enhance efficiency, productivity, and resource utilization while addressing common challenges. This approach may be supported by training and education, infrastructure development, financial and credit support, technology adoption, and cooperative farming. To comply with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) labour requirements and attract workers, this study recommends offering competitive wages, providing decent working conditions, implementing fair labour policies, investing in worker training, engaging with the local community, promoting sustainability, and collaborating with local employment agencies. These measures can help address the challenges of recruitment and retention of labour in the industry. The study underscores the significance of addressing these gaps in order to promote sustainable practices and prevent forced labour in the Malaysian palm oil industry.

Designing vocational training policies in an outermost European region: Highlights from a participatory process

This paper presents a systematic framework of the most needed Vocational Education and Training (VET) reforms in The Azores, a Portuguese outermost region. Our report is based on a participatory research approach involving the perspectives of five different groups of stakeholders. Our data was collected in 18 virtual world-café sessions ( n = 164 participants—58 trainees; 21 trainers; 42 institutional representatives; 21 unemployed people registered at local public employment agencies; and 22 businesspersons; M age = 45.20; 60.37 women). Based on content analysis, we identified three main priorities to restructure vocational training policies: (a) VET perception and valorization, comprising strategies to disseminate a more positive social representation of VET in the region; (b) horizontal coordination between stakeholders, including effective ways of coordinating and sharing information; and (c) vertical coordination in terms of VET improvements of curricula, funding models, and investments in the sector’s human capital. Our correspondence analysis did not show significant differences regarding the prevalence of the three priorities across the five groups of stakeholders. We interpret and contextualize our results according to relevant publicly available data about the region, and an integrated governance lens to inform policy design in outermost territories.

The Role of Informal Labour Market Conditions and Transferrable Competences on Informal Employments for Secondary School Graduates in Kigoma District, Tanzania

Secondary school graduate output in Tanzania has enormously increased without a proper placement plan in the labour market. Specifically, the paper delineates the differences in informal labour market conditions and transferrable competences between urban and rural secondary school graduates; presents an examination of informal employments for secondary school graduates; and denotes the impact of transferrable competences and informal labour market conditions on secondary school graduates’ informal employment. A cross-sectional study design was employed to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Descriptive results showed trading, fishing, transportation, mechanics, food vending, palm oil processing and farming to be among main informal employments in which secondary school graduates are engaged. Mann-Whitney U test showed that there were significant differences in the effect of explanatory variables between urban and rural secondary school graduates. Binary Logistic Regression analysis showed that 8 variables namely, informal labour market accessibility, financial capital, social networks, labour market legal framework, self-efficacy, interpersonal relation, entrepreneurship, and farming competences had significant influence on informal employments of secondary school graduates. The results from focus group discussions and key informant interviews were consistent with the findings from the quantitative data. It is thus concluded that informal labour market conditions and transferable competences have an influence on informal employment of secondary school graduates. Therefore, adjustments of informal labour market conditions and transferable competences could be an effective tool of expanding informal employments for secondary school graduates in the informal labour market. The findings emphasise on the need for alerting Local Government Authorities, labour offices, employment agencies, and Non-Governmental Organisations to adjust and re-organize informal labour market conditions and improve transferable competences for secondary school graduates, and hence, improve chances for the graduates getting informal employment. Keywords: Informal labour market conditions, transferable competences, informal employment, secondary school graduates. DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-2-05 Publication date: January 31 st 2021

Profiling help for an unemployed person - an unsuccessful experiment or a missed opportunity?

In June 2019 the profiling of support for the unemployed was eliminated (introduced in middle of 2014). The process of support profiling was supposed to more accurately dedicate support to people registering in employment agency, but over time the profiling became a routine procedure. Statutory support instruments for people detached from the labour market were also symbolic. The Constitutional Tribunal, the Ombudsman and the employees of the local (poviat) employment agencies themselves spoke critically about the support profiling. According to them the profiling system prevented those people from operating effectively due to the limited range of forms of assistance that could be used in the established assistance profile. The purpose of my article is to try to answer the question of why the profiling did not work in Polish conditions. The article contains conclusions from a short study on this issue conducted in poviat employment agencies in January 2020.

Regional Discontinuities and the Effectiveness of Further Training Subsidies for Low-Skilled Employees

The author analyzes the effects of further training subsidies for low-skilled employees on individual labor market outcomes in Germany. Using detailed administrative data, the author exploits cross-regional variation in the policy styles of local employment agencies to identify causal effects of program participation. Findings show that training subsidies significantly increase cumulative employment duration and earnings in the short run and middle run for compliers, that is, those workers who additionally participate due to a more generous policy style in their agency. These gains are particularly pronounced for certain subgroups, such as women. A rough cost-benefit analysis, however, suggests that the program overall is not beneficial for the public budget.

New evidence on long-term effects of start-up subsidies: matching estimates and their robustness

The German start-up subsidy (SUS) program for the unemployed has recently undergone a major makeover, altering its institutional setup, adding an additional layer of selection and leading to ambiguous predictions of the program’s effectiveness. Using propensity score matching (PSM) as our main empirical approach, we provide estimates of long-term effects of the post-reform subsidy on individual employment prospects and labor market earnings up to 40 months after entering the program. Our results suggest large and persistent long-term effects of the subsidy on employment probabilities and net earned income. These effects are larger than what was estimated for the pre-reform program. Extensive sensitivity analyses within the standard PSM framework reveal that the results are robust to different choices regarding the implementation of the weighting procedure and also with respect to deviations from the conditional independence assumption. As a further assessment of the results’ sensitivity, we go beyond the standard selection-on-observables approach and employ an instrumental variable setup using regional variation in the likelihood of receiving treatment. Here, we exploit the fact that the reform increased the discretionary power of local employment agencies in allocating active labor market policy funds, allowing us to obtain a measure of local preferences for SUS as the program of choice. The results based on this approach give rise to similar estimates. Thus, our results indicating that SUS are still an effective active labor market program after the reform do not appear to be driven by “hidden bias.”

New Evidence on Long-Term Effects of Start-Up Subsidies: Matching Estimates and Their Robustness

The German start-up subsidy (SUS) program for the unemployed has recently undergone a major make-over, altering its institutional setup, adding an additional layer of selection and leading to ambiguous predictions of the program’s effectiveness. Using propensity score matching (PSM) as our main empirical approach, we provide estimates of long-term effects of the post-reform subsidy on individual employment prospects and labor market earnings up to 40 months after entering the program. Our results suggest large and persistent long-term effects of the subsidy on employment probabilities and net earned income. These effects are larger than what was estimated for the pre-reform program. Extensive sensitivity analyses within the standard PSM framework reveal that the results are robust to different choices regarding the implementation of the weighting procedure and also with respect to deviations from the conditional independence assumption. As a further assessment of the results’ sensitivity, we go beyond the standard selection-on-observables approach and employ an instrumental variable setup using regional variation in the likelihood of receiving treatment. Here, we exploit the fact that the reform increased the discretionary power of local employment agencies in allocating active labor market policy funds, allowing us to obtain a measure of local preferences for SUS as the program of choice. The results based on this approach give rise to similar estimates. Thus, our results indicating that SUS are still an effective active labor market program after the reform do not appear to be driven by “hidden bias”.

Does accessibility to local public employment agencies matter? Answers from a French quasi-experiment

ABSTRACTWe question whether accessibility to local public employment agencies impacts exits from unemployment. We deal with the potential endogeneity of the residential location of jobseekers by using the unanticipated creation of a new agency in the French region of Lyon as a quasi-natural experiment. We use exhaustive and geo-located individual data on jobseekers and local public employment agencies. Contrary to past evidence based on aggregated data, we find no evidence that jobseekers with improved accessibility to the local public employment services experience an improvement of their probability of exiting unemployment. We however find evidence of transitory organizational effects. These findings strongly question the costly strategy of a fine distribution of local public employment agencies across the territory while suggesting that institutional issues are key.

Does individualized employment support deliver what is promised? Findings from three European cities

AbstractSince the inception of the European Employment Strategy in 1997, individualized employment support has been a key priority of the European Union and its Member States. Nevertheless, empirical research on the delivery of individualized services for the unemployed is still underdeveloped. In this article, we explore how local employment agencies in three European cities tailor counselling and services to jobseekers’ individual needs. We find that limited service budgets and underdeveloped organizational interfaces with social service providers tend to constrain the substantive individualization of services in practice, which works in the disfavour of vulnerable jobseekers. Individualized counselling is more widespread, at least for selected target groups. However, organizational capacities for offering individualized problem assessment and advice vary considerably across “worlds of individualization” in Europe.

Practices of activation in frontline interactions: Coercion, persuasion, and the role of trust in activation policies in Germany

AbstractFollowing Michael Lipsky's well‐known argument that policy is made in the daily encounters between street‐level bureaucracy and citizens, a growing body of research emphasizes that actors and organizations delivering social and labor‐market policy play a crucial role in welfare‐state politics. Using qualitative data collected at three local employment agencies in Germany, this article explores worker‐client relations as a crucial mechanism through which activation policies are translated into practice. The analysis investigates how caseworkers define their role and their relationships with clients. The findings show that it is essential for caseworkers to achieve client compliance. In such a context, building relationships of trust is a strategic instrument in overcoming possible barriers to co‐operation in the caseworker‐client interaction. Caseworkers develop strategies to create the impression of trustworthiness and to motivate both unemployed clients and employers to become trust‐givers in the caseworker‐client relation. While research has often stressed the dichotomy between disciplining and enabling elements of activation policies, our explorative study shows that persuasion and trust‐building are a further important dimension of the frontline delivery of activation policies. These strategies reflect the importance of emotional aspects of frontline work.

Reinforcing the Network of Local Employment Agencies to Prepare for Changes in Future Jobs: Analysis of Busan

Reinforcing the Network of Local Employment Agencies to Prepare for Changes in Future Jobs: Analysis of Busan

Training vouchers, local employment agencies, and policy styles

This paper analyzes how the policy style of local employment agencies is correlated with the award intensity of training vouchers for the unemployed—an important instrument of Active Labor Market Policy (ALMP) in Germany. We define the policy style of agencies on the basis of caseworkers’ and managers’ assessments regarding the voucher system and information on internal organization, cooperative and communicative behavior. We use unique survey data in combination with data on training voucher awards from the Federal Employment Agency. Our results suggest that cooperative behavior and communication have a positive influence on the intensity of training voucher awards after we control for regional and labor market characteristics.

The emergence of an ‘ethnic economy’? The spatial relationships of migrant workers in London's health and hospitality sectors

This paper examines how the globalized nature of London's service sector redefines spatial relationships for recent migrants working in the health and hospitality industries. Findings from the qualitative data demonstrate that recent temporary migrants to the UK employ broader strategies to secure employment than accounted for by current theories. The migrants in our case studies overwhelmingly utilized global and local recruitment and employment agencies, as well as sought employment in industries already established as ‘ethnic economies’. We suggest that this might be attributed to a lack of interaction with established co-ethnic immigrant communities; temporary migration trajectories; and living arrangements with co-migrants. We conclude by emphasizing the need to broaden our understanding of ethnic economies and social networks in light of these changing spatial relationships that have emerged through the globalization of the service sector in the UK.

Do Firms Benefit from Active Labour Market Policies?

This paper investigates the link between variation in the supply of workers who participate in specific types of active labour market policies (ALMPs) and firm performance using a new exceptionally informative German employer-employee data base. For identification we exploit that German local employment agencies (LEAs) have a high degree of autonomy in determining their own mix of ALMPs and that firms' hiring regions overlap only imperfectly with the areas of responsibility of the LEAs. Our results indicate that in general firms do not benefit from ALMPs and in some cases may even be harmed by certain programs, in particular by subsidized employment and longer training programs. These findings complement the negative assessment of the cost-effectiveness of ALMPs from the empirical literature on the effects for participants.

The Governance in Matters of Labour Market in Romania - The Territorial Assessment of the Institutional Actors and Tools

Governance in the job market covers all the policies, norms, laws, regulations, institutions and process which influence labour offer and demand. The present paper is focused on the territorial approach of the institutional actors involved in labour market governance, including unemployment. The article underlines the relationships between the labour market governance on the national level and the governance on the EU level. The organisation of the institutional actors in labour market field is characterised by the individualisation of the three distinct levels, each actor having specific attributes, different from a level to another level. The territorial assessment of the institutional actors and tools in labour market governance (including unemployment) is obvious in the case of inferior level of the pyramidal structure of institutional framework, in fact, the territorial structures of the National Employment Agency (the County Employment Agencies, the Local Employment Agencies and the Working Points).

Persons with Disabilities

An exploratory study of fourteen Toronto hotels found that these hotels employ relatively few persons with disabilities. While responding human resources managers agree that hiring those with disabilities is a good practice, they noted numerous barriers to increased employment. Among the barriers is the fact that many people do not know how effective persons with disabilities can be in the hotel setting. Other barriers to be overcome are the lack of communication among employee groups and a failure of local employment agencies to work with hotels in placing persons with disabilities, as well as the physical layout of the hotels themselves. While the study is specific to Toronto, it seems reasonable to believe that the underlying causes of failure to employ persons with disabilities extend to other Canadian markets and, indeed, to other markets in North America.

The California Wellness Foundation's grant making in work and health.

The California Wellness Foundation's grant making in work and health.