Design and Implementation of Redeployment Programs
Job-search assistance can be valuable because it helps identify and match workers' skills to available job opportunities. Job-search efforts generally show positive results and, when targeted, can be cost-effective.
The purpose of job-search assistance (or outplacement) is to reduce the time and transaction costs that displaced workers would otherwise incur in trying to find new employment. There is evidence that job-search help works, at least in situations where the formal labor market is active:
Rebuilding displaced workers' confidence is an important element of both counseling and jobsearch assistance.
The intervention that seems to work best-at the lowest cost-is job search assistance (sometimes combined with other labor market measures) (Fay 1996, reviewing active labor market programs in OECD states).
Public employment services in particular have served as brokers matching jobs with job seekers, traditionally through physical centers (employment "exchanges"). Internet technology is also being used in some countries (box 5.22).
In a comprehensive review of active labor market programs, Dar and Tzannatos (1999) concluded that evidence suggested job-search assistance could have positive effects and is usually cost effective compared with other active labor market programs. Results, however, were linked to the labor market conditions-where overall unemployment is rising, job-search assistance has not had a positive impact.
Labor programs associated with the restructuring of both Brazilian and Polish railways made use of Internet technology to deliver information on severance and redeployment to displaced workers.
In Chile the National Training and Employment Service has developed a national electronic labor exchange-InfoEmpleo (see http://www.infoempleo.cl/) -that holds the résumés of job seekers and receives notice of more than 300 job vacancies a month. Similar programs exist in Korea ("Work-net" at http://www.work.go.kr/worknet/main.htm) and in the Philippines ("Phil-Jobnet" at phil-jobnet2.dole.gov.ph/pls/philjobnet/main).
In Andhra Pradesh, India, the state government's Social Safety Net Program established a Web site where workers who have been displaced as part of a series of enterprise closures and restructurings could post their résumés. Some workers found employment overseas through this mechanism, via a private sector placement agency in Chennai that had accessed the Web site.
Source: Adam Smith Institute, personal communication.
In industrial countries, a first phase of job-search assistance is often undertaken on the premises of the enterprise, and involves providing an outplacement center where workers can:
Another tool is the provision of an additional period of paid time during which workers continue to receive a salary but can use that time for job search. It can help both workers and managers:
A job club is a group of workers who meet regularly together as part of their jobsearch efforts. The job club may be supported by the implementing agency or by the public employment service. Members of the club can determine their main activities, which could include:
Source: Hansen 2001.
