Public works, welfare, primary and secondary labor markets

Although public employment plays a central role in today's labor market processes and social system, we actually know very little about it: we do not know the actual number of people in public employment, and there are several different approaches and data sets in circulation that are not comparable or only partially comparable. In our study, we attempt to bring order to the confusion based on the raw data provided to us by the National Labor Office (NMH), showing how many people were employed in public works between 2011 and 2013, and using this to interpret recent developments. First, we briefly review the changes in unemployment benefits and public employment rules in recent years. We examine the development of active labor market instruments, including the resources allocated to public employment. This is followed by a presentation of the number of people involved in public employment and the average number of public employees according to various criteria, and then we use a probit regression model to estimate the chances of leaving public employment for the primary, open labor market. Our paper concludes with a summary of the conclusions that can be drawn from the data presented.