Active labor market programs

Many OECD countries link social assistance benefits and active labor market programs that seek to increase the skills, employment, and long-run earning potential of partici-... 

BOX 5.8 Global Experience with Active Labor Market Programs... 

Betcherman, Gordon, Karina Olivas, and Amit Dar. 2004. Impacts of Active Labor Market Programs New Evidence from Evaluations with Particular Attention to Developing and Transition Countries. Social Protection Discussion Paper 0402. Washington, DC World Bank. 

Labor. The extensive regulatory aspects of labor are separate from safety nets. Active labor market policies and income support to the unemployed are closely related to—and, indeed, sometimes directly overlap with—safety nets, but most of the programs used to these purposes are well covered elsewhere and are not discussed here. 

List the country s main public programs child allowances, noncontributory pensions, needs-based social assistance, food programs, public works, targeted fee waivers, any other social assistance programs, unemployment insurance and assistance or active labor market policies, contributory pensions, and so on. 

Note Benefits paid by UI programs (1970-2000 includes all regular, extended, federal, and emergency UI programs 2001-2003 includes only regular UI benefits). Federal outlays for labor market programmes include job training, employment services, and other active... 

The Interface Between WC and OSHA. We can use the results reported in Table 4-4 to examine further the interface between WC and OSHA. The absolute size of the interaction must, of course, be the same as reported earlier when we discussed the labor market effects of OSHA enforcement activities. Still, because WC increases injuries only slightly, the interaction between the two safety programs appear larger when put on a percentage basis. For instance, a movement toward a 0.80 rate of income replacement increases the average frequency of injuries by 0.4 percent in the absence of safety standards, but by 0.6 percent with maximum enforcement of safety standards. Further, the increase in WC benefits raises the maximum probability of injury by 0.2 percent without OSHA but by 0.3 percent with an extremely stringent OSHA program. 

A focus on sustainable employment outcome A commitment to sustainable employment outcomes requires social protection measures to be coupled with training and skills development programs, job creation activities to be combined with productivity and skills enhancement, and disaster labor market response to be integrated in regiraial workforce development strategies... 

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