This report on Italy is the fifth country study published in a series of reports looking into how policies connect people with jobs. It discusses how active labour market policies in Italy are performing both on the national and the regional level, focussing particularly on the reform process in the system of public employment services initiated by the Jobs Act.

This report discusses the role of Korea's active labour market policies (ALMPs) and one-stop shops for employment and social services in fostering a more inclusive labour market.

This report on Italy is the sixth country study published in a series of reports looking into how policies connect people with jobs. It discusses how active labour market policies in Italy are performing both on the national and the regional level, focussing particularly on the reform process in the system of public employment services initiated by the Jobs Act. The ongoing reform has good potential to improve the performance of employment services in Italy, particularly if the stakeholders of the system cooperate to establish a binding performance management framework and develop national IT infrastructure supporting the tasks of the local offices to serve jobseekers and employers. The National Agency for Active Labour Market Policies has a key role in encouraging the cooperation between the stakeholders, leading the development of new tools and methodologies and thus supporting the local employment offices to implement the new service model. Besides the general reform process, the review looks at some specific approaches regarding providing employment services in Italy - using jobseeker profiling tools to target active labour market policies; increasing quality and capacity of employment services by contracting out employment services to private service providers; and reaching out to employers and advancing demand-side services.

Latvia’s public employment service, the State Employment Agency (SEA), is undertaking a modernisation of its service delivery. This review discusses the SEA’s digitalisation needs and strategy to guide its modernisation efforts. It provides a detailed assessment of the SEA’s digital infrastructure and key recommendations concerning its IT system, analytical capacity and digital tools for jobseekers and employers. This report on Latvia is the fourteenth country study published in this series.

This report uses rich administrative data from different registers in Greece to evaluate the impact of two types of active labour market policies (ALMPs): wage subsidies and training for unemployed people.

This report on Bulgaria is the eighth country study published in a series of reports looking into how policies connect people with jobs. It provides a detailed analysis of Bulgaria’s inactive and unemployed population and identifies groups of people who would benefit from measures and services provided by Bulgaria’s Public Employment Service.

Using panel data for 15 industrial countries, active labor market policies (ALMPs) are shown to have raised employment rates in the business sector in the 1990s, after controlling for many institutions, country-specific effects, and economic variables. Among such policies, direct subsidies to job creation were the most effective. ALMPs also affected employment rates by reducing real wages below levels allowed by technological growth, changes in the unemployment rate, and institutional and other economic factors. However, part of this wage moderation may be linked to a composition effect because policies were targeted to low-paid individuals. Whether ALMPs are cost-effective from a budgetary perspective remains to be determined, but they are certainly not substitutes for comprehensive institutional reforms.

This report on Estonia is the seventh country study published in a series of reports looking into how policies connect people with jobs. It discusses the set-up and performance of active labour market policies (ALMPs) in Estonia.

The 2021 edition of the OECD Employment Outlook focusses on the labour market implications of the COVID‐19 crisis. Chapters 1-3 concentrate on the main labour market and social challenges brought about by the crisis and the policies to address them.

"For many decades, American liberals have pointed to Europe's social welfare systems as a model for the US. As Senator Bernie Sanders famously said: "I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn what they have accomplished for their working people" (Moody, 2016)"--