The latest annual report on ‘PES Capacity’ across Europe highlights how the challenges of the pandemic have led to adjustments in the availability and deployment of resources, the services offered and the strategic objectives of PES. The report also outlines related changes in the institutional set-up of PES.

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The PES Network’s seventh annual Assessment Report on PES Capacity presents and analyses key recent trends in the development of Public Employment Services (PES), based on survey responses from 30 PES across Europe. The changes in PES capacity have occurred in the context of particularly challenging labour market conditions due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A notable feature was the impact of the pandemic on PES reforms, with 80% of PES signalling the initiation or acceleration of reforms – particularly in a context of digitalisation. Equally, some planned reforms that did not help address the immediate urgency of the pandemic were delayed – including some longer-term revisions of active labour market measures.

Labour market policies changed more rapidly than before as policymakers sought to create and maintain jobs. At the same time, a knock-on effect for PES capacity was that they generally saw an increase in their own financial resources – apart from expenditure on benefits. They also saw an overall increase in human resources, reversing the downward trend of the previous four years.

The provision of adult career advice and guidance services by PES emerged as a new feature of the report into PES capacity. This marks an important expansion of approach beyond the provision of such services to young people still in education identified in previous reports.

The report also includes important observations on the priority ambitions of PES around labour market (re-)integration and more efficient internal processes, as well as the post-COVID recovery strategies being put in place – typically with digitalisation and partnership-based approaches at their core.

The information and learning from this annual survey are already feeding into the ongoing work of the PES Network in supporting mutual learning between PES on the topics most important to them.