Preventing and fighting long-term unemployment Long-term unemployment predominantly affects the low-skilled, the young (20-29) and workers coming from non-EU countries. While older workers are less likely to become unemployed than other workers, once long-term unemployed, they face greater difficulties in finding a new job. Drivers Challenges The 2008 European Commission In 16 Member States the benefits Recommendation on Active Inclusion supporting LTU people are seen as very indicates that a range of measures weak. are necessary to support people in Social services often fail to reach the most accessing employment. These include disadvantaged and there can be weak adequate income benefits, effective and links and little coordination between these efficient social services and good quality services. active labour market programmes. Active labour market programmes target those who appear to be the most likely to succeed and this means that the long-term unemployed currently have about half the chance of finding employment compared with the short-term unemployed. In terms of coordination between Information gaps and lack of common services in meeting the full range of data bases still present barriers to needs of the LTU, the one-stop-shop cooperation but there still needs to be a seems to be gaining more credibility. This greater promotion of the concept of the is supported by the fact that new models one-stop-shop and the techniques to of organisation are developing especially enhance procedures for cooperation through, political and/or administrative between agencies. decentralisation and varying degrees of privatisation of employment and social service provision. The recent Council Recommendation on the integration of the long-term unemployed into the labour market (2016/C 67/01) indicates the need for a single point of contact offering support to the long-term unemployed. The above Recommendation also The three main challenges identified by highlights the need for individual the ESPN study were: assessment. The (ESDE) review indicates insufficient emphasis on tailoring “The that is a need for more “there support to the overall needs of the individualisation and targeting of policy unemployed; measures.” While the ESPN Study The lack of administrative and staffing indicates that is a fairly wide spread “there capacity resulting from low front-line recognition that the long-term unemployed staffing levels and/or little of the training need more individualised support tailored necessary to provide quality support; to their needs than those who are closer to the labour market.”
Preventing and fighting long-term unemployment Long-term unemployment predominantly affects the low-skilled, the young (20-29) and workers coming from non-EU countries. While older workers are less likely to become unemployed than other workers, once long-term unemployed, they face greater difficulties in finding a new job. Drivers Challenges The 2008 European Commission Recommendation on Active Inclusion indicates that a range of measures are necessary to support people in accessing employment. These include adequate income benefits, effective and efficient social services and good quality active labour market programmes. In 16 Member States the benefits supporting LTU people are seen as very weak. Social services often fail to reach the most disadvantaged and there can be weak links and little coordination between these services. Active labour market programmes target those who appear to be the most likely to succeed and this means that the long-term unemployed currently have about half the chance of finding employment compared with the short-term unemployed. In terms of coordination between services in meeting the full range of needs of the LTU, the one-stop-shop seems to be gaining more credibility. This is supported by the fact that new models of organisation are developing especially through, political and/or administrative decentralisation and varying degrees of privatisation of employment and social service provision. The recent Council Recommendation on the integration of the long-term unemployed into the labour market (2016/C 67/01) indicates the need for a single point of contact offering support to the long-term unemployed. Information gaps and lack of common data bases still present barriers to cooperation but there still needs to be a greater promotion of the concept of the one-stop-shop and the techniques to enhance procedures for cooperation between agencies. The above Recommendation also highlights the need for individual assessment. The (ESDE) review indicates that “there is a need for more individualisation and targeting of policy measures.” While the ESPN Study indicates that “there is a fairly wide spread recognition that the long-term unemployed need more individualised support tailored to their needs than those who are closer to the labour market.” The three main challenges identified by the ESPN study were: “The insufficient emphasis on tailoring support to the overall needs of the unemployed; The lack of administrative and staffing capacity resulting from low front-line staffing levels and/or little of the training necessary to provide quality support;
employment_tn_baseline_study-final.docx