Why job brokering does NOT work in Poland?Experimental study

Adam PawluczykMagdalena SmykJoanna Tyrowicz

Group for Research in Applied Economics

Route for today

1.Why at all talk about this? 10% of employers report vacancies to employment offices Unemployment spells longer in Poland than elsewhere?

2.What did we do? Reported offers to employment offices and observed

reaction3.How did it work out?

60%: no reaction at all4.Why is it so?

Bad incentives (=legislation)5.What happened next?

Really shocking… reaction 6. Is this important?

Honestly: yes!

But first…

who is „we”?

MagdaM.A. student

pianist, lawyer

AdamM.A. student

VBA programmer

… so it was a part time thing, really!

Why talk about this?

Fact #1 10-20% offers get reported to labour officesFact #2 over 50% employers NEVER report an offerFact #3 2.5 times more unemployed find a job than there is job offers at labour offices

Jan-2005 Jan-2006 Jan-2007 Jan-2008 Jan-2009 Jan-2010 Jan-20110

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

finders

offers

Why talk about this?

Fact #1 10-20% offers get reported to labour officesFact #2 over 50% employers NEVER report an offerFact #3 2.5 times more unemployed find a job than there is job offers at labour offices

Jan-2005 Jan-2006 Jan-2007 Jan-2008 Jan-2009 Jan-2010 Jan-20112.0

2.1

2.2

2.3

2.4

2.5

2005-20122009-2012

Why talk about this?

Fact #1 10-20% offers get reported to labour officesFact #2 over 50% employers NEVER report an offerFact #3 2.5 times more unemployed find a job than there is job offers at labour offices

If finding workers is costly, higher reluctance to create jobs at all!

Additional fact #4 Roughly 1 out of 7 offers reported is available in the national IT system.

Additional fact #4 380 labour offices, each does it differently

But in public debate: for each bad case, examples of a good one…

What did we do?

1. Went step by step through legislation 2. Drafted four job offers

accountant, sales representative, driver, warehouse cleaner frequent + skill + formal qualifications

3. Pretending to be a (non-existant) company, we sent out request to help fill these vacancies to all labour market offices

by e-mail (perfectly legal) never answered follow-up questions

4. Observed the reaction for two weeks quantified the types of answers (time, equality of access,

clarity, technology, etc.)

5. Sent out a debriefing e-mail (from my account) with an invitation to a survey

questions on how they provide job brokering service to firms reached about 40% of response rate

How did it work out?

39%

61%

10.0% 12.0% 14.0% 16.0% 18.0% 20.0% 22.0% 24.0%5%

15%

25%

35%

45%

55%

65%

75%

85%

LB

ŚL

MPDŚ

OPZP

WPPM WM

PKMZ

KPŁD ŚK

LBL

22,1 – 38,6

17,1 – 22,012,1 – 17,0

4,5 – 12,0

%

Any answer came

No answer

How did it work out?

Why is it so?

Law is unfit to reality outdated (paper + requiring documents) uncomfortable fails to keep labour offices in the market with

commercial job posting service

Implementation is additionally damaging (survey evidence)

Labour offices do not consider GENERAL employers as clients bad experience focus on ALMPs

What happened next?

Coverage by a major weekly Subsequently huge media coverage

evening news for a year media reports (visits with LO’s) interviews with minister of L&SA

/even Trouw /

Joint conference employers, ML&SA, labour offices

… and nothing more: law stays the same, practice stays the same

We are working on two new experiments

Is it important?A

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Norw

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Mexic

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Finla

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Pola

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Euro

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Hungary

Sw

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rland

Cze

ch R

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Slo

vak R

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0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

Is it important?

Job brokering is the most efficient ALMP, but stays outside the scope of (nearly) all international

comparisons effectiveness measured rarely, mostly in countries where it

already works

Putting numbers on such concrete „things” as response to job postings helps to cut through the chase shows deficiencies of legal design (many legislations are

simply „forgotten”) helps to set standards (in international perspective)

Thank you for your attention!

Joanna Tyrowiczj.tyrowicz@uw.edu.pl

More about our research on http://grape.uw.edu.pl

Twitter: @GrapeUW