National and European Employment Policy Frameworks

Posted on Dec 5, 2025 in Business Administration and Management (BAM)

Employment Policy: Purpose and Objectives

Topic 3: Labor Market Characterization. Employment policy refers to a set of measures implemented by the government aimed at facilitating entry into and retention of employment, alongside providing protection against unemployment.

Defining Employment Policy

The main objective is achieving full employment quality. Full employment is a major aim of the welfare state, emphasizing the quality of employment provided.

Balancing Labor Supply and Demand

Employment policy seeks to achieve two types of balance in the labor market:

  • Quantitative Balance: Ensuring that those who want to work find employment, and that employers find the workers they require.
  • Qualitative Balance: Alignment between job requirements and worker training/skills.

Intermediary labor institutions are essential. When there is an imbalance between supply and demand, protection systems are necessary for individuals who are involuntarily unemployed.

Core Objectives of Employment Policy

The policy aims to:

  • Ensure equal opportunities and non-discrimination.
  • Promote the employment of groups facing greater difficulties (e.g., women, youth, disabled individuals, long-term unemployed, immigrants).
  • Provide an effective system of protection against unemployment.
  • Focus on unemployment prevention (e.g., measures to improve skills and retraining).
  • Promote labor market unity: correcting regional disparities (policy must account for specific regional labor market characteristics) and facilitating the geographic mobility of workers.
  • Address immigration issues related to labor.

Instruments of Employment Policy

Employment policy utilizes two main types of measures:

  • Active Policies: Measures related to job placement, promoting recruitment, encouraging the creation of new jobs, training, retraining, and job mobility (prevention of unemployment). These policies also promote the employment of the unemployed and other specific groups.
  • Passive Policies: Measures providing economic protection to the unemployed while they seek to re-enter the labor market (e.g., unemployment benefits).

Employment agencies serve as crucial instruments, linking job offers with job demands.

Institutional Framework in Spain

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MTAS) develops and coordinates employment policy in Spain. It establishes regulations governing:

  • Promotion of employment.
  • Regulation of working conditions for employment maintenance, entry, and exit.
  • Labor mediation and unemployment protection.
  • Management and control of unemployment benefits.

Roles of MTAS and Autonomous Communities

The Autonomous Communities (CCAA) hold legislative powers regarding active policies and employment agency standards, and they implement policies alongside the MTAS. The MTAS, in collaboration with the CCAA, prepares the National Action Plan for Employment, following the guidelines of the European Employment Strategy.

The National Employment System (SNE)

The SNE coordinates employment policy across Spain, including the coordination of information on vacancies, job applications, and active policy implementation. The SNE comprises the State Public Employment Service and the public employment services of the CCAA.

The State Public Employment Service (which replaced the former INEM) is an independent organization under the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MLSA/MTAS). All CCAA, except the Basque Autonomous Community, Ceuta, and Melilla, have their own public employment services.

Key functions of the State Public Employment Service include:

  • Participation in the design of employment policy.
  • Management of employment equity, unemployment benefits, and training.
  • Observation, analysis, statistics, and studies on the labor market situation.
  • Offering brokerage services: capturing job offers and providing information to employers.

The European Employment Strategy (EES)

There is no single European model for the labor market; each country designs its own employment policy. However, common challenges exist, such as the persistence of unemployment and the increase in long-term unemployment, necessitating a coordinated general approach.

Shift Towards Active Policies

The European Employment Strategy provides general guidelines for national employment policies, focusing on coordination and monitoring. Historically, until the mid-1990s, passive policies predominated. Since then, greater emphasis has been placed on active policies (unemployment prevention), including youth employment schemes, new sources of employment, and training.

This shift reflects the understanding that European unemployment is largely structural, meaning passive policies alone are insufficient.

Key Instruments of the EES

The instruments used to implement the European Employment Strategy are:

  1. Guidelines: General directives for employment policy.
  2. Recommendations: Specific state-level suggestions that complement the guidelines (e.g., measures to make indefinite contracts more attractive to employers).
  3. National Action Plan for Employment (NAP): Specific measures developed by the MTAS (with CCAA participation) in accordance with the guidelines and recommendations.