Policy brief: COVID-19: Public Employment Services and labour market policy responses
English
ILO
The International Labour Organization is the tripartite U.N. agency that promotes Decent Work through employment, social security, labour standards and social dialogue. Its work on skills development is guided by the conceptual framework on Skills to improve productivity, employment growth, and development agreed in 2008 by representatives of Governments, Employers’ Associations and Workers’ Associations. Research, policy advice, and pilot projects and technical cooperation programmes to apply good practices in different circumstances across its 185 member States aims to boost the employability of workers, the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises, and the inclusiveness of economic growth. The ILO Secretariat in offices in 40 countries works with Ministries of Labour, employers’ organizations, and trade unions to integrate skills development into national and sector development strategies in order to better meet current labour market needs and to prepare for the jobs of the future; to expand access to employment-related training so that youth, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups are better able to acquire skills and secure productive and decent work; and to improve the ability of public employment services to provide career guidance, maintain labour exchange services, and deliver active labour market programmes.For more information regarding the ILO’s work on skills and employability go to: http://www.ilo.org/skills/lang--en/index.htm; for ILO/Cinterfor's Knowledge Management Plarform, see: http://www.oitcinterfor.org
Career guidance and employment services
Career guidance and counselling, career education and lifelong development of skills for employability are key for success in learning activities, effective career transitions, livelihood planning, entrepreneurship and in increasing labour market participation. They are instrumental in promoting skills utilization, recognition (RPL), as well as in improving enterprise human resource management.
Career development activities encompass a wide variety of support activities including career information and advice, counselling, work exposure (e.g. job shadowing, work experience periods), assessment, coaching, mentoring, professional networking, advocacy, basic and employability skills training (curricular and non-curricular) and entrepreneurship training. It is often an area which is fragmented across different ministries (e.g. education, TVET, employment, youth) requiring an effort to achieve the necessary coordination to provide adequate support to individuals during learning, employment and unemployment/inactivity periods.
Policy and strategy
Recommendations and advice on resolving policy challenges related to skills development systems and their linkages to the world of work. Concise syntheses of experience from the international organizations.
Labour market programmes are a key part of the mix of policy responses that governments have put in place to protect jobs, enterprises and incomes from the fallout of the pandemic. As in previous crises, policy-makers in emerging and developed economies have used labour market policies to deal with immediate labour market deterioration in various ways: to speed up return to work, adapt skills, facilitate workforce reallocation and cushion temporary income losses after unemployment spells. However, in contrast with past downturns, in this crisis labour market institutions have had to deal not only with a fall in aggregate demand, but also with the effects of lockdown restrictions and physical distancing measures aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
International empirical evidence shows that employment services are one of the most cost-effective active labour market interventions aimed at facilitating labour market transitions for workers and enterprises. Since the global economic and financial downturn of 2008–09, Public Employment Services (PES) have become an important point of access for jobseekers, workers and employers to a range of passive and active labour market support mechanisms. In the current crisis, PES operations have been of critical importance in assisting workers and employers dealing with redundancies, furloughs or reduced work schedules.