A new publication by the PES Network highlights the shift taking place from ‘curative’ to ‘preventive’ responses by Public Employment Services (PES) in the face of structural changes in the labour market. Covid-19 has only reinforced the urgency of such trends.

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These messages and more are set out and explained in a new PES Network Thematic Paper on Roles of PES in supporting structural changes. The paper concludes that “Developing the anticipation of new jobs and new competences is, and will be, a major source of a renewal of PES interventions...”

This is revealed in a global shift in the priorities of PES, which have progressively enlarged their mission “from a strict focus on the unemployed… to include all categories of workers [and] potential workers”.

Their scope increasingly covers “life-course and career guidance for workers, as well as continuous services for enterprises”. The report thus confirms and develops messages from a 2019 PES Network Analytical Paper which highlighted the key role of PES in preventing unemployment.

Central to the delivery of such approaches will be “expanded anticipation, expertise and partnerships”. PES still effect a key “structuring action on the labour market, but perform it through an enlarged range of means and strategies,” including partnerships with business networks, and private placement or training agencies. The report thus also reiterates messages from a recent PES Network Working Group on Partnership Management.

The report explains that the way these trends are playing out across Europe differs according to national and local contexts and needs. But a common feature is that these approaches are “not a quick-fix strategy but [require] a long-term effort” – for example, around improving the use of digital tools and data.

As the report sets out, the dramatic events of the COVID-19 crisis have only served to increase the urgency of such efforts in the face of rapid structural changes.

This latest Thematic Paper is the main output following a day of online PES Network events on the role of PES in supporting structural change which also highlighted the key role of PES in supporting changing labour markets as reported in a related PES Network news item in June.

Read the full Thematic Paper for a more detailed analysis of the above aspects and the presentation of six key challenges for successful prevention policies and possible responses by PES.