Availability of labour

If companies want to preserve their competitiveness they need to be able to respond in good time to structural challenges. To guarantee availability of labour, the Ministry of Employment and the Economy promotes the matching of work with workers, develops the skills and professional mobility of the workforce, strengthens the position concerning the labour supply, and reduces unemployment.

The Ministry is seeking new ways of working and approaches and is stepping up its supply of services by establishing links between entrepreneurship and work. Entrepreneurial development services and support for growth companies are combined with employment and skills development services.

Cash for measures under national labour market policy has been redirected and is now being used to support the employment of the jobless in the open labour market and to ease the problem of job matching.

The appropriations available are being used for more effective measures, including vocational training, especially for training courses being set up with companies, and subsidised employment in the private sector.

The workings of the system of change security, a mechanism for speeding up the transition from job to job, are being made more efficient. The Ministry is also involved in the planning and implementation of other policy measures in the Government Programme to try and safeguard the availability of labour. These include support for the mobility of the workforce, the promotion of career extension, faster employment following training courses, and better work profitability.