Employment agencies in the United States

The day-to-day job choices that workers make affect not only their own occupational futures but, in the aggregate, the number of workers available in each major skill category and the productivity of thenational economy. The prospective jobholder requires three typesof placement information: available openings, forecasts as tolabour market trends, and advice about the relationship of his or herown capabilities to job openings.

Most large business organizations maintain extensive employment or personnel departments and do not depend entirely oneither public or private employment agencies. Job-placementfunctions are also performed by schools and universities, professionalsocieties, trade unions, and advertising. Although the Internet has fundamentally changed many aspects of job searching and career placement, local and national public employment offices still represent an excellent means of bringing job information and jobless workers together. Their association with the unemployment insurance program guarantees them access to most of theavailable workers in the community. Because it operates in alloccupational fields, DOLETA’s CareerOneStop has the widest range of job openings available in the community and provides a vast and well-ordered supply of information about the labour market and supply-and-demand prospects for each occupation.

Along with public employment programs, there are thousands of private recruiting agencies and placement services in the United States. The multibillion-dollar industry included such companies as CareerBuilder, Monster, LinkedIn, and Indeed. These Web sites typically maintained databases of millions of résumés and employment listings and offered networking opportunities for job seekers. Such services typically collected fees from employers, but much of their revenue was generated by online advertising.

The employment service in the United Kingdom was created by the Unemployed Workmen Act of 1905. Although itwas the subject of much criticism in its early years, it later cameto be universally accepted. As in the United States, it complementsrather than replaces private employment agencies. The modern machinery of the national employment service was created by the Labour Exchanges Act of 1909, embodying most of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Poor Laws, 1905–09. The British Ministry of Labour, established in 1916, formulated and directed the national policy of the employment service and operated regional and local offices throughout thecountry. Responsibility for employment services later passed to the Department of Social Security and, in 2001, to the Department for Work and Pensions and its Jobcentre Plus program.

The employment service keeps records of job seekers, helpsthe unemployed find work, helps the handicapped obtain and holdsuitable employment, advises workers on welfare problems unconnectedwith the place of employment, advises employers aboutthe supply of labour for new enterprises, and pays unemploymentand national assistance benefits. Public employment exchangesserve adults; a separate youth employment servicehandles young workers. As in other European countries, the employment service concentrates on tapping employment reserves: the handicapped, older workers, and women. It offers rehabilitation and resettlementservices to disabled workers, including supervision of governmentrehabilitation centres and sheltered workshops.

The municipal and state systems of Germany, established before1900, served as a model for the British agencies. Beginning in the early 20th century other European countries established employment agencies similar to those in Great Britain. From the proceedings of the International Labour Organization in 1919 came the adoption of an international uniform system. A draft convention on employment adopted by the conference provided in its second article as follows: “Each member (that is, each state) which ratifies this Convention shall establish a system of free public employment agencies under the control of a central authority. Committees, which shall include representatives of employers and workers, shall be appointed to advise on the carrying on of these agencies.” In addition to Great Britain, mostof the members of the International Labour Organization ratifiedthis convention and took the necessary legislative steps to set uppublic employment systems.

Public employment services vary organizationally in Europe, but the creation of a continent-wide network under the auspices of the European Union has led to increased efficiency. Attitudes of the various European employment services differas to their role in advancing full employment, their work in promotingjob placements directly with employers, and their relationshipto the supervision of job training and vocational education.