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Tackling unemployment in Europe: lessons from Australia?

Sophie KoppeToulon University, France

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AustraliaDenmarkFranceItalyNetherlandsUnited KingdomOECD - Total

Unemployment rates

Direction of Australia’s merchandise (and services) exports, 1951 to 1999 (per cent)

Direction of Australia’s merchandise (and services) imports, 1951 to 1999 (per cent)

  1951-55

68-7280-84 90-92

99   51-55 68-72 80-84 90-92

99

UK 45 21 7 6 5(12) UK 36 11 4 4 4(11)

Other Europe 15 19 17 20

18(12)

Other Europe

27 16 10 12

9(9)

N. Am. 15 27 25 26 22(21)

N. Am. 10 16 13 12 11(19)

Japan 1 13 21 18 13(6) Japan 8 26 27 26 19(12)

East Asia 2 7 14 19 30(23)

East Asia 6 12 20 30 34(24)

New Zealand 7 2 3 5 4(5) New Zealand

4 5 5 5 8(7)

Middle East 4 5 9 3 1(na) Middle East

1 2 8 3 4(na)

Other dev. countries

11 6 4 3 7(na) Other dev. countries

8 12 13 8

9(na)

TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100 TOTAL 100 100 100 100 100

APEC 25 40 63 68 69( 55)

APEC28 49

65 73 72

(62)

Anderson, K. (2001). Australia in the international economy. Dans J. Nieuwenhuysen, P.J. Lloyd and M. Mead (dir.), Reshaping Australia's economy : Growth with equity and sustainability. Cambridge : CUP.

We took the view in the 1970s – it‘s the old cargo cult mentality of Australia that she‘ll be right. This is the lucky country, we can dig up another mound of rock and someone will buy it from us, or we can sell a bit of wheat and bit of wool and we will just sort of muddle through ... In the 1970s ...we became a third world economy selling raw materials and food and we let the sophisticated industrial side fall apart ... We must let Australians know truthfully, honestly, earnestly, just what sort of international hole Australia is in. It‘s the price of our commodities – they are as bad in real terms since the Depression ... If this government cannot get the adjustment, get manufacturing going again and keep moderate wage outcomes and a sensible economic policy, then Australia is basically done for ... If in the final analysis Australia is so undisciplined, so disinterested in its salvation and its economic well being, that it doesn‘t deal with these fundamental problems ... the only thing to do is to slow the growth down to a canter. Once you slow the growth under 3 per cent, unemployment starts to rise ... Then you are gone. You are a banana republic.

Paul Keating 1986Snape, R. H., Gropp, L. et Luttrell, T. (1998). Australian trade policy : 1965-1997. Sydney, Australie : Allen and Unwin. p. 84.

The combined impact of low domestic savings, rising levels of private foreign debt and financial deregulation have dramatically increased the influence of international capital markets, financial institutions and credit-rating agencies. In this climate it has become difficult to canvass higher levels of public sector expenditure or progressive taxation without high-profile commentators screaming that not only would this make Australian business uncompetitive but, in a deregulated financial system, the international financial markets and credit-rating agencies would never permit such policies to be implemented.

This has led in turn to a disturbing trend towards political self censorship, with even progressive politicians and trade unionists refusing to talk about alternatives to current economic policy settings because, it is argued , there is no point discussing policies that would be unacceptable to the financial markets.

Wiseman, J. (1998). Global nation ? Melbourne : CUP. p. 69.

It is undeniable that the onset of what some people call globalisation and the information age have challenged old ways. Many Australians quite reasonably fear the pace of change. Some see technology as being beneficial while many others see it as a device which is driving a wedge between older generations and the young.

Globalisation is unavoidable. The challenge for government is to manage its impact. It must be simultaneously beneficial to the community while helping those sections of the community adversely affected by globalisation to adjust.

It is political fools-gold to pretend that globalisation can be avoided and that some simplistic wave of the wand is available.

John Howard Keynote Address To The Acoss National Congress AdelaideNovember 1998

Improve the functioning of the Public Employment Service (PES). Integrate three basic functions under the PES: placement and counselling services; payment of unemployment benefits; and management of labour market programmes. Ensure that the inflow, processing and dissemination of information on vacancies is given adequate attention which in most countries means greater attention.

 Ensure that claimants remain in regular contact with the PES, and that they maintain job search efforts (back-to-work plans, job clubs, reorientation interviews).

Eliminate the monopoly position of the PES. There is a complementary role for private placement agencies as well as temporary work agencies. Require that the PES compete in the market for short-term placements (in order to increase the flow of vacancies).

OECD Jobs Study 1994

Service delivery agencies have been established overseas, notably in the [United Kingdom] and [New Zealand]...but the new agency takes the concept of single-point government service delivery further. Unlike overseas counterparts, the Agency will not operate solely as an administrative entity within a department of state or be limited to single portfolio responsibilities. In many ways the Agency represents a groundbreaking model for government service delivery at a federal level...customers will have a single point of contact—a one-stop shop—for a range of government services.

Newman, J. (1997, may 26). A new era in customer service (press release, FaCS). Canberra.

In both AF and the municipalities, there are people caught in the system. And in both systems there are persons who by their own help find a job. In reality you cannot divide the unemployed into a strong group of insured and a weak group of uninsured2.

The reintegration efforts should be determined by the needs of the unemployed, rather than whether the unemployed is insured or not. The system must be adjusted to the individual, not the other way around.Carstensen, M. et Pedersen, J. M. (2008, 25 – 27

aout). Translating jobcentres : The complex transfer of new labour market policy instruments from the UK and NL to Denmark. Communication presentee a la 2eme conference ECPR Graduate, Networks and Ideas in Policy Making, a l‘Universitat Autonoma, Barcelone, Espagne. p. 4-5.

Dutch organisational structure

Morrell, H. et Branosky, N. E. (2005). The use of contestability and flexibility in the delivery of welfare services in Australia and the Netherlands (research paper, n. 288, DWP). Londres, Royaume-Uni : HMSO.

UK

Netherlands

Australia’s unique approach to helping the unemployed has delivered good results but challenges remain

Australia’s system of activation policies to help benefit recipients to find jobs works well overall. This is due in part to the increasing effectiveness of Australia’s unique system of delivering employment services for the unemployed through private and not-for-profit providers, as well a slow decline in the value of unemployment benefits relative to average wages. Exemptions from active job search for some categories of welfare benefits have also been removed.

Australia has performed well against recent OECD Jobs strategy criteria and it served as a model for some policies, but the various functions of the PES have remained fragmented.

This report aims primarily to assess current policy in detail and on its merits, while also allowing international readers to learn from Australia’s many remarkable experiences and innovations in labour market policy.

Dissatisfaction

enough dissatisfaction or necessity exists and providing that an entrepreunarial elite is ready to manipulate these grievances and establish a transfer network6

Evans, M. et Davies, J. (1999). Understanding policy transfer : A multi-level multi-disciplinary perspective.

Conservative party: Dissatisfaction

Several years ago there was a deep need for change in Britain’s Conservative party. We had suffered major election defeats and had become out of touch.

As leader I began a process of thinking anew about social reform and the need to reconnect with the aspirations of the British people – particularly those who had been let down by failed Government.

John Howard Lecture with Iain Duncan Smith p.19 http://www.mrcltd.org.au/news/pdf/110722_Aus%20speech_v4.pdf

Inspiration

I must confess that in developing this Programme we have taken a great deal of interest in Australia‘s welfare to work schemes.

I was especially keen to learn from your pioneering transition, launched by the Liberal Government in 1998, from state-run employment services to voluntary and private sector provision, through the Jobs Network and now Job Services Australia.

As a country Britain has taken too long to understand the basic message that we shouldn‘t be so concerned with who delivers support or how they do it, but whether what they do actually work.

John Howard Lecture with Iain Duncan Smith http://www.mrcltd.org.au/news/pdf/110722_Aus%20speech_v4.pdf

Ingeus

Other contractorsSuppliers must be able to go back to DWP to ask for re-assessment and a change in customer classifications where health conditions and previously un-identified barriers come to light in order to secure appropriate levels of funding. Welfare to Work Suppliers operating under the Australian Job Seeker Classification Instrument discovered disabilities and personal factors not identified in initial assessments, as well as depression, anxiety and adjustment barriers from recently unemployed people classified as close to the labour market”.

Written evidence submitted by Reed in Partnership House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee Work programme: providers and contracting arrangements Fourth Report of Session 2010–12 Volume II Additional written evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be published 27 April 2011

“Addressing the change in profile of customer group: the ambition should be to move towards a more sophisticated assessment, drawing on the experiences in Australia of the Job Seeker Classification Instrument (JSCI). This results in a classification into one of four categories—the payment structure then follows the designation. A pilot should be undertaken to get the right measures in place for the Work Programme going forward”.

Written evidence submitted by A4e Group, ibid

A global impact

The undeniable superiority of the private and voluntary sector

Australian reform 1998We have instituted a new Job Network to bring together employers and jobseekers faster, with less cost and less bureaucracy, with a focus on results not process.

Despite the carping criticism of many the new system is superior to the one it replaced. Let me tell you why.

There are now more than four times as many sites to apply for jobs as there were through the Commonwealth Employment Service. And those best qualified to provide services to the unemployed – business, community and charitable organisations such as Drake Australia, The Salvation Army and Mission Australia - are already outperforming the old system.

Federation address "the Australian way" presented to the Queensland chamber of commerce and industry by the prime minister the hon John Howard mp Brisbane Thursday, 28 January 1999

British reform 2011Third, we are making welfare much more responsive to individual needs. We’re sweeping away all the old top down centralised bureaucracy that treated people like numbers in a machine. And in its place, we’re saying to the person who is unemployed and desperate to get a job – we will make sure you get the personalised help you want. We will give each of you a proper assessment of your needs. And then, through the Work Programme, we’ll invite our best social enterprises, charities and businesses to come into the welfare system and give you intensive, personal assistance to find work. Not just the big established players, but small, innovative charities and social enterprises too.

PM's speech on Welfare Reform Bill Thursday 17 February 2011  Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a speech on the Welfare Reform Bill on 17 February 2011