Executive summary

This report provides an overview and assessment of Australia’s labour market policies to tackle welfare benefit dependency and unemployment. It examines Australia’s main labour market institutions, employment services and other active and passive labour market programmes. Australia is unique among OECD countries in that its mainstream employment services are delivered by over 100 for-profit and nonprofit providers competing in a “quasimarket”, with their operations financed by service fees, employment outcome payments, and a special fund for measures that tackle jobseekers’ barriers to employment. In most other OECD countries these services are delivered by the Public Employment Service. The Job Services Australia model, introduced in 2009, reinforced the focus on employment outcomes for highly disadvantaged groups. This report assesses the latest reforms of Australia’s “activation” model and puts forward recommendations to improve its effectiveness.