Labour Ministry report criticises measures to fight unemployment

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A report drafted at the Ministry of Labour criticises the ministry's own actions to fight long-term and repeated unemployment as inadequate.
      Action against joblessness is often seen to be taken at a point when there is little that can be done to help the individual in question.
      According to the report, local authorities should be required to provide employment for young people, and employees who are terminated for reasons of production should be entitled to outplacement services.
     
The report, which is being published today, Tuesday, criticises the employment policies of Finland and the European Union as doing too little too late.
      The report also notes that a cost-benefit analysis of measures that have been taken has been largely neglected with respect to many actions.
      The report, entitled Early Intervention as a Method of Employment Policy, is largely funded by the European Commission. The aim is to examine the practices of European employment strategy and to seek more efficient means to reduce unemployment. Another aim is to develop means of national assessment of employment policy.
     
The head of the working group which drafted the report, Labour Ministry official Hannu Kauppi, said that the present corrective measures should be replaced by efforts to truly prevent long-term unemployment.
      The idea of early intervention as a means of preventing unemployment has been discussed frequently, but according to the report, practical measures have focused on breaking the cycle of unemployment. Dealing with impediments to employment that are related to a person's previous work history and other aspects of his or her life has been neglected.
     
"Cutting joblessness after three, six, or 12 months is too late, if the purpose is to raise the employment level in the long term", the report points out.
      Action needs to be taken at an earlier stage in a person's working career, and this should be made into a new kind of chain of services, aimed at securing a "good working career" at an early stage.
     
"It would be good for local authorities to be obliged to provide jobs for young people, because getting established in work at an early stage is very important for the future career. There have already been preliminary discussions with the City of Kotka, aimed at making Kotka an experimental municipality in this respect."
      Kauppi adds that it has been well established that social problems, certain health problems, poor success at school, and problems at home portend difficulties in a person's future working career.
      Kauppi says that recognising the danger signals and helping people in time would pay for itself by keeping people at work.
      "Naturally, citizens are mainly responsible for their working careers themselves, but it would be much cheaper for society if certain groups at risk were to receive support much earlier than is the case now", Kauppi says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Ministry of Finance expects incomes agreement and tax cuts to bring job growth (3.12.2004)
  OECD: Finland to enjoy brisk growth, but stubborn jobless figures (1.12.2004)

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