The measure is in line with the European Employment Strategy which has acknowledged the crucial role of Public Employment Services (PES) in increasing the labour market participation and implementing policy developments in practice.

In addition it is in line with the flagship initiative “Agenda for new skills and new jobs” and therefore it will help achieving 75% employment rate in the EU by 2020 (one of the most relevant objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy).

During the last decade the unemployment rate among people aged between 15 to 64 years in Germany decreased from 9.9% in 2003 to 5.2% in September 2013 (Eurostat 2013). Despite the positive performance of the labour market, the percentage of long-term unemployed among the unemployment population remained high (45.4% in 2012).

In this context the PES provided free and impartial services to reintegrate jobseekers in the labour market and to support a better alignment between labour supply and labour demand.

The main problem being addressed was the reintegration of jobseekers into the labour market. Successful reintegration required an appropriate linkage between jobseekers’ skills and the employer needs. However, it was felt that the job-seeking tool available before the implementation of the Virtual Labour market Platform” (VLM) required improvement, as it was not up to the standard of the competition and was perceived as less attractive than its market competitors.

The VLM is a common platform for all labour market actors (PES, employers, jobseekers, training institutions, public organisations, private recruiters, third parties etc.). The main purpose of the VLM was to improve the online support system used in Germany to bring together information about job seekers’ profiles with systematic and regularly updated occupational qualification databases, local and regional labour market data and an evidence based measures catalogue. This common platform was designed in order to develop strategies for the reintegration of jobseekers into the labour market.

The main objectives of the ‘Virtual Labour Market’ project were:

• The development of a state-of the art job-seeking tool, attractive for employers as well as for jobseekers;
• The development of consistent, centralised IT databases;
• The development of a consistent tool to support the work of counsellors; and,
• The development of coordinated, aligned and well-connected internal procedures.

The platform was designed as an instrument to match jobseeker profiles with job vacancies and to help Public Employment Service staff to administer client data. The online platform is based on a modern user-friendly interface; which provides user-specific homepages with key search features and direct links. It allows the user to identify different qualification levels, from assistants to managers, and has easy “Google-like” search features.

The platform consists of three different components: Jobboerse, VerBIS and JobRobot. The three components are closely interlinked.

• Jobboerse. This component is used by jobseekers, who register online to create their personal profile. This is followed by an interview with a counsellor where personal data are reviewed and an “integration plan” is developed. At the same time, companies post their vacancies on Jobboerse, equally followed by a personal review through PES.

The matching process is based on over 40 criteria, which consider the initial qualifications of the jobseekers and the competences and learning outcomes acquired via non-formal, informal and on-the-job learning.

After the application process, the company is required to send out feedback to the candidates. Both firm and jobseeker are required to notify the counsellor about the outcome of the process.

• VerBIS. This component of the VLM is an internal IT-system supporting the organisation of the provision of employment services. It supports counsellors in all the processes linked to job placement and payment of unemployment benefits.
• JobRobot. This component is a job-crawler that collects job vacancies from company websites and posts them in the PES intranet.

After its launch, the Virtual Labour Market Platform became the market leader in the field of online job portals. Every week, the online portal accounted for an average of 18,500 new registered jobseekers and 1,600 new registered companies.

During its implementation period, the number of job vacancies and applicant profiles among the three elements of the support system can be summarised as follows:

• The Jobboerse accounted for approximately 1.1 million job vacancies
• VerBIS included 3.8 million of applicant profiles
• JobRobot was used by roughly 250,000 job vacancies

In addition, the number of people who used every day the tool was up to 1 million for the Jobboerse, 100,000 for the VerBIS and 100,000 for JobRobot.

With regards to the level of satisfaction among the different user groups, internal surveys carried out illustrated a high level of satisfaction among both jobseekers and employers and a medium level of satisfaction among staff.