Appropriations and programmes of the Labour Market Administration The appropriation B 1, Labour Market Service, comprises two programmes, Labour market information and Occupational & geographical mobility. The activities in the first of these programmes are designed to give applicants active support in obtaining the best possible return on the labour they have to offer and to help employers find the personnel they require among the labour resources which are available or can be developed. The activities of the Employment Service comprise three basic functions: information, placement and work preparation. The staff of the Service are concerned with placement and work preparation. Personnel for occupational rehabilitation and vocational guidance are chiefly concerned with work preparation. The information function covers all public information -oral, written or via other media-provided by the Employment Service. Most of the printed information consists of local, regional and national lists of vacancies, catalogues of courses, folders and other publications dealing, for instance, with the labour market, Occupations and training, drawn up for the general public, chiefly those looking for work and employers. The placement function of the Employment Service has to do with the assistance provided to the individual job-seeker when choosing vacancies and to employers trying to recruit labour. This assistance may be provided in relatively simple forms but can also require major amounts of time and financial resources for local as well as inter-local placements. Assistance to jobseekers may involve the Service in giving individual suggestions concerning vacancies, contacts with employers about vacancies on behalf of the applicant or the acquisition of employment that has not been registered with the Service. In order to help arrange employment, the Service can provide grants so that unemployed can move to another locality or so that special arrangements can be made at places of work. Similarly, employers can obtain individual assistance in that the Service suggests certain applicants for a vacancy, procures labour that has not registered with it or provides grants for training or special devices at the work place. In the case of groups of applicants or employers, the Employment Service can take collective measures for acquisition, recruitment and activation. The acquisition of vacancies is often undertaken during a visit by an official to the firm. At the same time, practical questions are discussed concerning hours of work, the design of the work place, occupational qualifications of the female, handicapped and elderly labour, the firm's personnel policy and so on. Activation is often combined with other measures for training, the supervision of children, housing etc. Major inter-local recruitment for firms with a large demand for labour is undertaken together with the firm's recrutment officer, by the temporary re-location of the Service's staff and by information conferences at recruitment centers for officials from other parts of the country. The work preparation function of the Employment Service is concerned with applicants who cannot obtain work directly in their area or elsewhere. They may require a change of occupation, alternative tasks, removal to another district, occupational training, employment in sheltered work, assistance for an enterprise of their own, etc. This may involve a far-reaching change in the applicant's situation. Preparatory measures are also taken for newcomers to the labour market with no specific occupation and for those who want to choose or change an occupation in the longer run. The tasks connected with work preparation in indivi Appropriation B 2, Measures for creating employment includes relief work. General relief work is primarily intended to provide temporary employment during seasonal and cyclical declines but can also be used in connection with lay-offs and discharges connected with other changes in the economy. Special relief work is arranged for elderly labour with local ties and for handicapped persons who cannot obtain work on the open maraket. The appropriation also covers economic support for the bringing forward of government orders to industries with employment difficulties. In order to increase the supply of ready-planned projects, grants for detailed planning can be provided in certain cases for central and local government authorities. Invest ments by firms can be stimulated by the release of investment funds; these funds are primarily a contracyclical instrument but may also be used to promote regional development policy. Appropriation B 3, Support for stock investments is a means of using government grants to stimulate production for stocks at firms whose marketing problems involve difficulties in maintaining employment. Appropriations E 1, Regional development supportGrants and V:9, Regional development supportLoans concern measures which aim to create equivalent welfare conditions in different parts of the country. thereby contributing towards a location of economic activities that will utilize the country's resources of capital and labour in an optimum manner. The instruments of regional development policy include consultation on the location of enterprises, economic support for moves of different kinds, for establishing enterprises and for training personnel as well as employment premiums for those who take on additional personnel. Appropriation C 4, Special measures for adjustment to work comprises two programmes: Rehabilitation & aid for the hard-to-place and Measures for creating employment for the hard-to-place. In the first of these, government grants are provided for arranging and operating units for the assessment of work capacity and for work training. It also covers further training for the hard-to-place in the form of adjustment courses as well as introductory courses for work in sheltered workshops. The other programme, measures for creating employment for the hard-to-place, includes grants for work assistants and for special devices at places of work as well as grants and loans for motor vehicles 31 for handicapped persons. Grants can also be obtained to cover the cost of special technical aids at work for the handicapped. Industrial assistance is intended to enable handicapped and certain other groups to start their own enterprises or, under certain conditions, to continue such activities. Archive work provides employment for unemployed presons who cannot obtain work on the open market and whose age, health or other personal circumstances excludes them from other kinds of relief work. Grants for semi-sheltered employment are to stimulate employers to arrange work for handicapped and elderly persons with a reduced work capacity who cannot obtain work on the open market under ordinary conditions. Employment can also be arranged for handicapped persons in sheltered workshops, where tasks and conditions can be adapted to personal circumstances. Work at home can be offered to persons who cannot get about or who have mental handicaps that prevent them from travelling to work. Appropriation D 2, Measures for refugees concerns the collective transfer to Sweden of refugees as well as certain Gypsies. It also involves caring for these groups, helping them to adjust and finding them employment, besides trying to do the same for aliens who have entered the country legally or illegally and who are judged by the National Immigration and Naturalization Board to be on the same footing as refugees. Appropriation B 4, Cash assistance for the unemployed provides government grants for the recognized unemployment insurance funds. The general cash benefit complements the regular unemployment insurance. Unemployment assistance can also be provided for elderly unemployed in the form of adjustment grants. a form of assistance that is being wound up. Appropriation B 5, Total defence activities involves planning for the utilization of the country's manpower in the event of an emergency or war as well as government grants to votuntary defence organizations in the civilian sectors of total defence. In addition, it covers the training of non-combatant conscripts serving at various central government departments. Appropriation B 6, Labour Market AdministrationProcurement of equipment concerns investments in machinery etc. as well as certain purchases of a nonrecurrent nature. Appropriation B 7, Labour Market AdministrationAdministration of equipment concerns the administration of equipment involving a relatively large amount of capital, e.g. barracks and machinery. Such equipment may be rented out within or outside the Labour Market Administration, in which case the rent is charged to cover the full costs. Long-term budget 1974/75-1979/80 The Board has already presented its view on developments of labour market policy during the past few years in the section entitled Survey of Labour Market Policy and in connection with the various appropriations. The following comments are made with reference to the calculations presented in the accompanying tables. Appropriation: LABOUR MARKET SERVICES If the Employment Service, which has experienced a sharp increase in its work load, is to discharge its responsibilities, the organization must have its staff and technical facilities reinforced together with a further supply of suitable premises. The Service's measures for information and referral should be promoted in particular. Heavier investment in the Service's activities will reduce the need for measures in other sectors of labour market policy. It is planned to step up the trials which have been started with computerized vacancy lists and the conventional lists will then be discontinued successively. The trials with computerized matching of vacancies and applicants are to be speeded up. The importance of labour market training as an instrument of labour market policy has been pointed out in several contexts. For the present the Board foresees an unchanged number of persons undergoing such training, with some shift towards the courses arranged by the National Board of Education. However, the total extent of labour market training is clearly contingent on the business cycle, so that numbers and consequently expenditure may rise. An upward adjustment of the current grants is an urgent matter because many of these compare unfavourably at present with unemployment benefits and other forms of support. The present estimates are based on unchanged grant regulations, pending a new system for grants which the Committee for Labour Market Training is expected to put forward. Measures to facilitate the geographical mobility of labour must continue to be an important element of labour market policy, though no substantial increase is foreseen in the volume of this activity. Appropriation: MEASURES FOR CREATING EMPLOYMENT The scale of relief work and other measures for the creation of employment is difficult to predict in the longer run. Regional inequalities and structural changes on the labour market will, however, entail a continuing long-term need for relief work projects. The financial requirements for cyclical measures to combat unemployment have not been considered in the LongTerm Budget. Appropriation: SUPPORT FOR STOCK INVESTMENTS Owing to the impossibility of predicting future changes in economic activity and consequently in employment, the Long-Term Budget does not include any costs under this heading. Appropriations: REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT SUP- Guidelines for measures of regional development |