Transcript Comparing employment strategies: EES,GEA, OECD (and

Comparing employment strategies:
EES,GEA, JS
Peter Auer
Chief, Employment Analysis and Research
Employment Strategy Department
ILO, Geneva
Labour Market Reform in the European Union, THE CICERO FOUNDATION
EMP/ANALYSIS 2005
Paris 23-24 February 2006
Global and regional employment strategies
Jobs Strategy
OECD
1994
EES
1997
GEA
2003
Discussion points
The EES, GEA and the OECD Jobs strategy
compared
The achilles heel of strategies: follow-up,
monitoring and feed-back.
The EES as a model case?
Strategies and Labour law
Conclusion and policy recommendations
Common goals: entrepreneurship, skills and
training, active labour market policies
From 2005
Integrated
Guidelines
(IG): EES and
BEPO (for
employment 3
general and 8
specific)
Chapter micro reformes of
IG: improve business
environment and enhance
entrepreneurial spirit (PME)
Increase human
capital by investing in
education and
training(3)
Increase employment
and modernise social
protection(1): life cycle
ILO/GEA 10
core
elements
Promoting decent
employment through
entrepreneurship (5)
Better employability
by improving
knowledge and skills
(6)
Active labour market
policies for
employment, security
in change, equity, and
poverty reduction (7)
OECD Jobs
study 10
core
recommend
ations
Eliminate impediments to the
creation and expansion of
enterprises (4)
Improve labour force
skills and
competences through
wide-ranging reforms
in education and
training systems (8)
Strengthen the
emphasis on active
labour market policies
and reinforce their
effectiveness (7)
approach, inclusive labour
market (also for target
groups), better adjustment
between supply and demand
in LM
Some divergence: Flexibility, New Technology,
Macroeconomic policy
OCDE
Promote adaptability of workers
and firms and labour market
flexibility(2) : Flexibility combined
with Security; Labour costs should
support employment creation
IG microeconomic reforms
but also Lisbon strategy in
general: investment in
R§D,ICT,transfers and
diffusion of technology
IG/BEPO:
Macroeconomic
policy for growth
and employment
Flexibility/Security (in core
element Active Labour Market
Policies) (7)
Promoting technological
change for higher
productivity and job
creation, and improved
standards of living (2)
Macroeconomic
policy for growth and
employment:: a call
for policy integration
(4)
Increase voluntary sought (by
workers and employers) working
time flexibility (3)
Make wages and labour costs
flexible in regards to local
conditions and individual skill levels
(in particular for young workers) (5)
Reform employment security
provisions that inhibit the expansion
of employment in the private sector
(6)
Improving frameworks for
the creation and diffusion
of technological know-how
(2)
Non-inflationary
and sustainable
growth oriented
macroeconomic
policy in accordance
with structural
policies (1)
Towards an integrated economic policy/employment approach: from
specific guidelines towards broader goals. However, goals of EES still
valid. Less specific.
Stronger emphasis on growth-job link.
General strategy linked to sustainable development, poverty reduction
through acces to employment and decent work
Includes mainstreamed objectives : social dialogue and gender
equality
Stresses also importance of labour demand
OCDE
Based on supply side of the labour market, aims at deregulation of
labour and product markets
at present revised with more equilibrated approach (e.g.
Flexibility/security), more balanced view on macroeconomic policy and
accepting more national diversity (not one size fits all)
Less emphasis on SPs
Similarities and differences: ALMP
Similarities
•Important policy
tool for all strategies
•Especially for target
groups
•Shared view on
« activation »
•ALMP one element
of flexi-curity
•Shared view on
necessity to improve
effectiveness
Differences
•Different emphasis on
supply and demand side
LMP measures
•Narrow vs. Broader concept
of evaluation
•GEA, EES more emphasis
on social dialogue
•GEA: Broader view on
LMP and LM institutions as
one instrument to cope with
negative effects of
globalization
•EES/(GEA): life cycle,
transitions
Differences in implementation and follow-up
Implementation by countries, through the open
method of coordination (OMC)/benchmarking, NAP
(NRP), JR, Recommendations; peer reviews, new 3
year programming cycles
Implementation and follow up « in construction »;
through governing body reporting, some first country
cases, part of decent work programming
OCDE
Ad hoc implementation by countries,
revision pending
Particularity of the EES
Indicators
Total employment
Goals
Female employment
Employment > 55 years
Process
Goals for 2010
70%
60%
50%
•New 3 years IG cycle: integration of
economic and employment objectives will in
future also integrate structural funds .Before
(and still valid) annual cycles of reporting on
EES guidelines through NAPs (now NRP),
JERs, Recommendations.
Convergence through benchmarking/comparison
Example of a goal: Employmen rate for older workers
Target will (most probably) not be reached !
Targets: employment rates, older workers
Employment rates of older workers (55-64) in
Member States in 1997 and 2002
% of population aged 55-64
80
1997 2002
70
60
Lisbon Target - 50 % by 2010
50
40
30
20
10
0
B
DK
D
EL
E
F
IRL
I
L
NL
A
P
Source: QLFD, comparable annual estimates based on LFS and ESA95, Eurostat.
FIN
S
UK
EU15
42,5 in 2004, EU25
41,0 Best: SE (69,1),
Worst: POL (26,2)
Employment strategies : do (better) than thy
neighbour?
The strategies presented are supranational. Therefore they are not,
even in the case of the European Employment Strategy(EES),laws.
They might inspire national laws, their prescriptions can be guiding
but even the EES has no sanction potential other than peer pressure,
the pressure of other EU countries.
An interesting „soft law“ is the method of open coordination which
aims at convergence by comparison: but adherance is voluntary.
Principles are: subsidiarity, convergence, MbO, multilateral
surveillance, integrated approach
Convergence by comparison, without being coercive, could be a quite
powerful means of achieving overall employment results. However, the
different situation in each unit of comparison (country, region, local
unit) has to be taken into account.
Conclusion and recommendations
some conditions to advance national
employment strategies and laws:
Important to avoid status of pure declaration, which is the
nature of general strategies
Development of local and national objectives which are in
coherence with problems and means available (funds,
institutions and instruments)
Implementation through effective labour market institutions
(e.g. public employment services) and policies
Good key labour market statistics which permit monitoring of
objectives and (e.g. interregional) convergence through
benchmarking in annual or pluriannual cycles
Periodic evaluation
Need for building/reinforcing actors and institutions of the
social dialogue
Importance of macroeconomic policies and policy integration
for more labour demand