Innovations in Labour Market Policies

With the introduction of Job Network on 1 May 1998, job matching and other employment assistance services in Australia were subcontracted to hundreds of private and community organisations. How well has this radical innovation worked? When jobseekers have to give something to the community in return for receiving unemployment benefits, what are the results? Which of Australia’s many innovations across a wide range of other labour market programmes could be adopted by other countries? Following extensive reforms to a complex industrial relations system to promote enterprise bargaining, what is the best way forward? This publication provides an in-depth analysis of industrial relations and labour market policies, with particular attention to recent insights from three years of operating experience with a contestable employment services market.