The basic mandate of Public Employment Services (PES) is to facilitate the adjustment of firms and workers to changing labour market conditions. PES are usually the primary government institution responsible for implementing a variety of active labour market programmes. In times of economic crisis, the fundamental employment services of registering individuals for unemployment insurance (where it exists) and providing job search assistance to unemployed workers is intensified. PES may also be tasked with delivering special programmes to assist displaced or retrenched workers, to support public works programmes or to work with enterprises to access training services or adopt public support for work sharing and other means of averting mass layoffs.
The ILO conducts assessments of national employment services which result in concrete recommendations to improve their capacity to deliver and monitor the impact of active labour market programmes. Given recent international trends in the growth of private employment agencies and the outsourcing of public services, the ILO also supports new ways for public and private agencies to work together.
The ILO’s focus in the area of employment services is to:
- support the reform and modernization of public employment services
- promote the appropriate regulation of private employment agencies
- promote cooperation between public employment services and private employment agencies
In these efforts the ILO works in close partnership with the World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES) and the International Confederation of Private Employment Agencies (CIETT).