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Archive:Labour market policy interventions

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Data from October 2013. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database.
Figure 1: Public expenditure on labour market policy interventions, 2011
(% of GDP) - Source: Eurostat (lmp_expsumm)
Figure 2: Public expenditure on labour market policy measures, EU-27, 2011 (1)
(% of total) - Source: Eurostat (tps00077)
Table 1: Labour market policy measures, participants by type of action, 2011 (1)
(annual average stock in 1 000) - Source: Eurostat (lmp_partsumm)

This article presents statistics on labour market policy (LMP) interventions. LMP interventions cover the range of financial and practical support offered by governments to people who are unemployed or otherwise disadvantaged in the labour market.

Main statistical findings

Across the EU-27, an average of 1.9 % of gross domestic product (GDP) was spent on LMP interventions in 2011; these latest figures for the EU average exclude data for Greece. The level of expenditure as well as the breakdown of both expenditure and participants between the different types of LMP intervention varied considerably between EU Member States, reflecting the diverse characteristics and problems within national labour markets, as well as the different policies of respective governments. The highest relative level of expenditure on LMP interventions in 2011 was reported in Denmark and Belgium (both 3.7 % of GDP), followed by Ireland and Spain (both 3.6 % of GDP) – the only other EU Member States to spend more than 3.0 % of their GDP on such interventions. At the other end of the scale, ten Member States spent less than 1 % of GDP on these interventions: Slovakia, Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Malta,Romania and the United Kingdom.

LMP expenditure can be decomposed into three main types of intervention: services, measures and supports. The vast majority (63.4 %) of expenditure on LMP interventions in 2011 across the EU-27 (excluding Greece) financed LMP supports, while just over a quarter (25.7 %) was devoted to LMP measures and the remaining one ninth (10.9 %) was spent on LMP services. Relative to GDP, Spain spent the most on LMP supports (2.8 %) with Belgium and Ireland the only other countries to spend more than 2 %. Denmark and Belgium had the highest relative expenditure on LMP measures (1.5 % and 1.4 % of GDP respectively), while Denmark (0.5 % of GDP), the Netherlands (0.4 % of GDP), France and Germany (both 0.3 % of GDP) reported the highest relative expenditure on LMP services.

Public expenditure on LMP measures was equivalent to 0.5 % of GDP across the EU-27 in 2011 (excluding Greece). The largest part of this expenditure (see Figure 2) went on training (40.0 %), just under a quarter (24.5 %) on employment incentives, while 16.3 % was accounted for by supported employment and rehabilitation (measures that promote the labour market integration of people with reduced working capacity) and 11.4 % by direct job creation (which covers the provision of temporary jobs that are additional to normal market supply).

Across the EU-27 (excluding Greece and the United Kingdom) there was an average of 9.6 million people participating in LMP measures at any point in time during 2011 (see Table 1). On average, 2.7 million persons in Spain participated in LMP measures at any time during 2011; this was considerably higher than in any of the other EU Member States, as France (1.5 million), Italy and Germany (both 1.2 million) had the next highest levels. Meanwhile, the average number of people in the EU benefitting from LMP supports at any point in the year fell slightly in 2011 to reach 16.2 million (excluding Greece) but remained well above the number of people who were assisted in 2008 (an average of 13.3 million). Germany, Spain and France were the only EU Member States to report that in excess of 2.5 million persons were benefitting from LMP supports in 2011.

Data sources and availability

Data source

All data presented in this article were extracted from the Eurostat LMP database. These data are collected annually from administrative sources in each country.

Scope of LMP statistics

LMP statistics cover labour market interventions which are public interventions in the labour market aimed at reaching its efficient functioning and correcting disequilibria. LMP interventions are distinguished from other general employment policy interventions in that they explicitly target groups with difficulties in the labour market; this includes: the unemployed, those employed but at risk of involuntary job loss and people who are currently inactive in the labour market but would like to work.

Types of interventions

LMP interventions are classified into three main types: services, measures and supports.

LMP services cover all services and activities of the Public Employment Services (PES) together with any other publicly funded services for jobseekers. Services include the provision of information and guidance about jobs, training and other opportunities that are available and advice on how to get a job (e.g. assistance with preparing CVs, interview techniques, etc.).

LMP measures cover interventions that aim to provide people with new skills or experience of work in order to improve their employability or that encourage employers to create new jobs and take on unemployed people and other target groups. Measures include various forms of intervention that "activate" the unemployed and other groups by obliging them to participate in some form of activity in addition to basic job search, with the aim of improving their chances of finding regular employment afterwards. They are mostly short-term and temporary actions but on-going support for jobs that would otherwise not be sustained in the regular labour market is also covered.

LMP supports cover financial assistance that aims to compensate individuals for loss of wage or salary and to support them during job-search (i.e. mostly unemployment benefits) or which facilitates early retirement for labour market reasons.

Additional category breakdowns

The three main types of intervention are further broken down into nine detailed categories according to the type of action:

  • LMP services
1. Labour market services;
  • LMP measures
2. Training;
3. Job rotation and job sharing;
4. Employment incentives;
5. Supported employment and rehabilitation;
6. Direct job creation;
7. Start-up incentives;
  • LMP supports
8. Out-of-work income maintenance and support;
9. Early retirement.

The LMP methodology provides guidelines for the collection of data on LMP interventions: which interventions to cover; how to classify interventions by type of action; how to measure the expenditure associated with each intervention; and how to measure the number of participants in each intervention using observations of stocks and flows (entrants and exits).

Context

More recently, LMP statistics have been used as one of the sources of data for monitoring the EU employment guidelines through the Europe 2020 Joint Assessment Framework (JAF). The JAF is an indicator-based assessment system developed and used by the European Commission and the Employment Committee. Organised into 12 policy areas, the JAF includes a series of indicators used to monitor the progress towards EU headline targets and associated national targets in relation to the implementation of the employment guidelines. Data from Eurostat’s LMP database are used to calculate indicators for policy area 3 related to active labour market policies and for policy area 4 related to adequate and employment oriented social security systems.

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Main tables

Labour market policy
Main tables
Labour market policy (t_lmp)
Public expenditure on labour market policies, by type of action (tps00076)
Public expenditure on labour market policy measures, by type of action (tps00077)
Public expenditure on labour market policy supports, by type of action (tps00078)
Participants in labour market policy measures, by type of action (tps00079)
Beneficiaries of labour market policy supports, by type of action (tps00080)
Persons registered with Public Employment Services (tps00081)

Database

Labour market policy
Database
Labour market policy (lmp)
Public expenditure on labour market policy (LMP) interventions (lmp_expend)
Participants in labour market policy (LMP) interventions (lmp_particip)
LMP based indicators for monitoring the Employment Guidelines (lmp_indic)
Persons registered with Public Employment Services (PES) (lmp_rjru)

Methodology / Metadata

Source data for tables and figures (MS Excel)

Other information

External links

See also

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