Good Practices in Labour Administration

Direct access to information for employment service users

The case of the United States

During the 1980s federal funds allocated to the operation of Employment Services were severely cut. As a response to the resulting inadequacy of funds for the provision of an adequate employment service to the public, State Employment Services have during the last fifteen years launched a series of programmes to reorganize the services they provide, with the intention in particular of broadening the access of the majority of individuals, especially those without a job and employers, to information on the labour market through the production or improvement of appropriate tools, especially electronic ones, like INTERNET. The task they faced was to do better with fewer resources.

More recently (1995), as a result of a report to the Congress on the improvement of the Labour Market Information System (LMIS) the Federal Government had the opportunity to review all initiatives nationwide in the field, including those mentioned above, with a view to the construction and funding of a national LMIS.

This new LMIS now offers a complete array of directly accessible information on current and future (projected) job vacancies, labour supply (personal "CVs"), training on offer etc. A user can now, from his or her own home, from the workplace or from a designated service point, survey the steps to be undertaken to bring together supply and demand, and embark upon a particular course of occupational training, or a choice of training paths. All these tools also enable the staff of local employment services to provide a suitable service to the user.

In the United States two processes have given rise to changes in users' direct access to labour market information in their search for a vacancy, a job, or a choice of training, and in the design of training policy. The first originated in the states' local employment offices, and the second in the federal Department of Labour (DOL).

In the past decade the management of the State Employment Security Agency (SESA) were forced to apply imagination and effort to maintain the quality of service to which their users had become accustomed as a result of significant budgetary cuts and the consequent reorientation of the aims and resources of the United States Employment Service (USES).

At the beginning of the period of change USES provided four types of service:

• a point of contact between job-seekers and employers with vacancies on offer;
• the administration of tests and occupational counselling;
• enforcement services on behalf of other sections of USES or other state institutions (unemployment insurance, social protection, immigration, food stamps, etc.);
• the collection of information and statistical analysis on the labour market.

During the past 15 years the following changes have taken place in employment services:

a) a change in the types of service provided as a result of:

• a 28 per cent decline in job placements (1980-86) as a result of a cut in federal support for employment agencies, of increased federal support for public sector and not-for-profit intermediaries competing with state agencies, the rapid growth of commercial profit-making employment agencies and of the temporary assistance providers;
• a 50 per cent reduction in professional counselling services between 1980 and 1987 (giving rise to a 37 per cent cut in the number of counsellors) due to a reduction of federal financial support;
• an end during the late 1980s to the large-scale use of aptitude tests (GATB - General Aptitude Test Battery) whereby candidates' qualifications could be graded for use as a reference in the placement process. In July 1990 the US Department of Labour informed the SESA agencies that, as of the beginning of 1991 the GATB could no longer be used to decide placement priorities;
• increasing duties in compliance-related enforcement on behalf of other agencies, entailing a substantial administrative burden;
• the heterogeneity of activities and funding sources in the labour market information field. As distinct from a programme designed to produce reliable nationwide estimates, the USDL Employment and Training Administration only provided 7 per cent of federal funding for such activities;

b) restrictions on client access to the services. Following on from 1982 cuts in federal subsidies:

• many local offices were closed or relocated and upkeep or repair work was postponed;
• opening hours were reduced.

c) staff reductions:

• a fall (in 1982) from some 30,000 man-years to 22,800, i.e. a 24 per cent cut arising from a recruitment freeze, staff cuts, internal relocations, doubling up of tasks and the hiring of temporary staff;

d) a change in the social character of persons registered with the agencies:

As a response to new needs in the midst of these constraints, new strategies and new paths of intervention were first explored at local level:

• the provision of services to groups, though this turned out to be more costly than their provision to individuals;
• the use of tests, though many of these were abolished in 1991;
• the recourse to associative devices (job-clubs) though the success of these remains unproven;
• distance registration, which was already in use in rural areas;
• the adoption of new technologies in the context of the creation of new 'One-Stop' services.

Eventually, this last approach became the axis around which local strategies were designed:

• self-services;
• assisted free service;
• specialised services provided by professionals.

Given the extreme decentralisation of employment services, each state is free to decide how to organise the services provided within its boundaries, and to create 'One-Stop' offices where the client has access to these three types of service, the free service being accessible freely to all via state and federal data banks. However, the rationalisation and slimming down of the employment services meant fewer and fewer staff, especially occupational guidance counsellors. In some states there are none at all for general consultation, save where they have been hired by specific programmes aimed at target groups. Furthermore, the fact that employment agencies were also entrusted with social programmes and with law enforcement harmed their image. Employers believed that the agencies would only provide poorly qualified applicants, while job-seekers believed that the agencies would only guide them towards low-paid jobs. This perception of inefficacy has led to a decline in usage, and the response has been to transfer the dissemination of information and some occupational counselling tasks to computerized career information tools available in employment agencies, secondary schools, colleges, universities and on the Internet.

The purpose of these steps was as follows:

• flexibility and adaptability (accessibility);
• reduced staff costs;
• the shift of responsibility to the users.

The second reason for providing direct access to users of the LMIS, which normally would be provided by the employment offices, was the creation of an integrated dissemination system for labour market information. During the first half of the 1990s Congress asked the Secretary of Labour to undertake a full-scale review of market needs and of existing labour market information products. The Employment and Training Administration and the Bureau of Labour Statistics of the DOL were then entrusted with this study in collaboration with a certain number of state LMIS Directors, with the Committee for Labour Market Information of the Interstate Conference of Employment Security Agencies (ICESA) and of the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC).

There is little evidence that the social actors at national level were involved in this consultation process prior to the establishment of the system. At local level, however, in the setting up of the One-Stop service, advisory groups comprising employers, unions, users, teaching establishments, social groups etc. were consulted in the establishment of the service.

The role of the leading actors

The investment of money and effort undertaken by the Department of Labour in the dissemination of labour market information, including direct user access to information, arose largely from the Report presented to Congress in July 1995 on the LMIS, the aim of which was to design an overall policy for the creation of a high-quality labour market information system. The report covered:

• user needs and existing products (LMIS);
• the legislative and funding framework;
• the organization, coordination and management of the system, including the role of the states;
• an evaluation of the capacity of state and local employment services and the impact on federal funding formulae.

It became clear from the start of the review process that the data bank project for the ALMIS would benefit from learning from the experience information at state level. Research and development on the system as a whole was therefore undertaken through consortia consisting of state agencies, so as to make use of their accumulated experience and of the work already undertaken by them on the job vacancy data bank (America's Job Bank), on employment projections, employers, wages and so on. The Department of Labour therefore invited the states concerned to join in the work and provided a budget to launch the operation.

The main lines of the resulting report concerned the following:

a) The principles of the LMI system itself, viz.:

• focus on the user and responsiveness to his or her needs;
• ease of access and use (state-of-the-art technology);
• linkages to other systems and information sources;
• achievement of the same degree of integrity and confidentiality as the existing system.

b) Identity of the users targeted:

• individuals;
• employers;
• intermediaries and counsellors;
• economic development agents;
• teachers and occupational training providers;
• planners and political decision-makers.

c) Description of the various existing systems

d) Recommendations on:

• products and services to be adopted;
• supplementary information needs;
• the technologies required for implementation of the products and services;
• the organizational structure of the LMIS;
• compatibility of technical language and norms;
• a funding programme.

Implementation

The United States Employment Service and the federal One-Stop/LMI team (ETA) share responsibility for the management and monitoring of the project. The One-Stop/LMI team is also charged with providing the necessary technical specifications for linking up the various data banks built up at state level.

The overall strategic objectives for the data banks arise from the ETA's internal programme and from regular consultation with the states, while the specific objectives and their sequencing in time are determined by negotiations and the consensus reached in the consortium.

Concretely, all the data banks are combined under the title America's Career Kit which permits easy access to integrated data. Those data banks are:

America's Job Bank (AJB) (an electronic list of job vacancies)

This data bank is the result of a joint federal-state effort. Launched in 1993 as an extension of the Interstate Job Bank (1979) it has been available on the Internet since 1995 (2.5 million visits per working day). It offers direct access to employers, and by April 1998 more than 25,000 employers had registered directly more than 250,000 vacancies. The AJB is managed by the USES (United States Employment Service), a section of the ETA (Employment and Training Administration).

America's Talent Bank (ATB) (an electronic CV list)

This instrument was developed by a consortium of 20 states led by Michigan and Missouri. The version launched in the Spring of 1998 and which has now been incorporated into America's Job Bank, reflects largely the proposal made by the states members of the consortium. The Internet-accessible data bank provides employers with access to job-seekers' CVs, and offers job-seekers access to a vast labour market.

America's Career InfoNet (ACINet) (occupational information network)

The development of this data bank was sub-contracted by the federal government. It includes a new classification of occupations, is at present undergoing a full review and should be available in a new version in July 1999. States and other organizations involved in employment and training have been consulted. This instrument is managed by the One-Stop/LMI team in the ETA.

This INTERNET data bank provides information on occupations: O*Net, the Occupational Information Network, is a comprehensive database on workers attributes and job characteristics. As a replacement for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), O*NET is the nation's primary source of occupational information. The information is available via occupational codes, keywords or a subject list. It can also provide other information on the following points:

• listing of employers;
• occupational research: general information (classification), wages and relevant training;
• geographical description: regional information on population, unemployment, household income etc. in relation to any particular occupation;
• complementary resources: information on occupational trade unions, professional associations, a list of enterprises, maps, weather, the educational system etc.;
• trends: employment and wage projections by occupation.

America's Learning Exchange (educational and training information)

This has also emerged from a joint approach, and has been developed by the state of Minnesota with prominent participation by educational institutions and by other states. Staff from the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC) were selected to develop this data bank, and the final product was due to be available at the end of January 1999. Already this instrument is providing useful specialised products for local employment service staff to offer employers, job-seekers, and students on training opportunities, including hundreds of course descriptions, books, reports etc. All this material is directed to specialists in the field of employment development, placement, guidance, the dissemination of labour market information, training etc.

The available list of employment-related training attracts more than 10 million job-seekers and employers per week. A large number of educational institutions are already registered, the University of Minnesota being the one hundredth continuing or lifelong education institution to register. Hundreds of training opportunities are now available.

The future management of AJB and ATB is the subject of ongoing discussions between the state and the Federal Government. The latter is currently of the view that a not-for-profit organization would be the most appropriate management vehicle for this electronic placement service. A number of proposals have been studied by the Interstate Conference on Employment Security Agencies (ICESA).

The national-level management team is small, comprising four full-time staff within the ETA OneStop/LMI, ten people in each regional office and one resource person providing technical support for the various state-level consortia.

The Report to Congress recommended the creation of a Training Institute for ALMIS staff (South Carolina LMI Institute). This would not necessarily have physical premises, but would consist rather of a computerized network providing courses and information and training tools to enable staff to use the resources at their disposal. It also recommended training tools to help data bank users such as employment advisors employed by employment services.

At the request of Congress, the latest information technology was contracted to ease access to information, and it was a stroke of luck that the extraordinary development of the Internet at the same time gave a strong impulse to the decision to provide free of charge all the tools of America's Career Kit. America's Job Bank now lists between 950,000 and 1,000,000 jobs daily in public employment agencies, directly accessible to all types of user.

As far as funding is concerned, the 1995 Report to Congress recommended investments in four sectors:

• common services and products, such as staff training, common projections provided by the BLS, etc.;
• the establishment and funding of the activities of seven consortia of states under the leadership in each case of the state responsible for research and for the development of data banks containing data on one of the following subjects:
• long term industrial and employment projections;
• short term industrial and employment projections;
• use of unemployment-insurance data as a tool of the LMIS;
• establishment of an employers' data base;
• creation of a LMIS Institute;
• creation of a system for market research on training providers;
• creation of a data bank on average occupational salaries;
• creation of a computerized network for the maintenance and upgrading of existing data banks;
• financial support to the One-Stop to ensure that their customers have access to technology tools and products.

Funding for the subsequent years came mainly from Congressional Appropriations, namely allocations for the OneStop service (Wagner-Peyser Authority, from the 1933 Law on Employment Services). Between 1994 and 1998 annual budgetary authorizations rose from $50 million to $150 million. The last budget was divided between $92.5 million for One-Stop implementation grants and $57.5 million for labour market information investments.

The 1998 Budget ($57.5 million for investment) for the Labour Market Information System is distributed as follows, for data banks among other items (in millions of US Dollars):

The 1999 Budget amounts to $146.5 million. The 2000 Budget requests the same budget, but subsequently the allocations will decline especially for the One-Stop system until they disappear completely. But under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, funding for local One-Stop delivery systems will come from the required One-Stop partners. All One-Stop partners must agree in a Memorandum of Understanding how each will contribute a fair share of the operating costs of the system and the costs for providing core services to adults and dislocated workers.

Impact of the measure

Evaluation of the impact of the ETA's programmes and interventions is undertaken in accordance with the rules contained in the Government Performance and Results Act. The annual budget review is a time for providing data on activity in this field. For the ACK there seems to be no fixed evaluation date. Evaluation of the employment services takes into account, with respect to AJB/ATB the number of registered employers and the number of live c.v.'s. It is not possible any longer to evaluate the performance of employment services with traditional indicators because the number of jobs found through free information services or through the Internet is not measurable. An annual evaluation will from now on be undertaken by asking users about the quality of the service offered.

The numerous sources of information through which users can in some sense short-circuit the services traditionally provided by public employment agencies, namely information, guidance, bringing together supply and demand, have led some people to believe that employment services in the traditional sense are doomed to extinction at least in the most highly developed countries, unless they redefine their value to customers reflecting the rased value floor represented by electronic and self-service vehicles. The movement toward One-Stop career centres and the seamless integration of self-service and staff-assisted service emerging in the United States and the Nordic countries may represent that positive redefinition and the hope for the public employment system in the future in countries where resources are available.

1. See ADMITRA doc. No. 35, BIT, Productivity in Labour Administration.