State and municipal employment efforts

In 2002 the government implemented the reform ”More People in Employment”. The purpose of the reform was to achieve uniform employment efforts for unemployed people with the same needs, irrespective of whether or not they had unemployment insurance. In other words, the former public employment services (AF) and the municipal job centres were to provide the same service for everyone in finding the shortest pathways into employment. This report shows that AF and the municipal job centres, which today are combined in regional job centres, each fulfilled the statutory requirements to a considerable extent, however AF mostly so. Readily employable people were often provided a different service by the two systems. This was due to differences between the systems and funding, but also due to cultural and attitude differences. However, the choice of tool by case workers also depended on their personal background and opinion. For example, if a case worker assessed a specific tool to be effective, he or she would apply this more often than other tools. The report is based on national questionnaire surveys carried out in 2006 among case workers and middle managers in AF and the municipalities. The results contribute to a clarification of the cultural and system-related differences which the new regional job centres are seeking to integrate.