Employment agency

The activity of an employment agency is aimed at placing jobseekers in employment. It can be done publicly or privately. In Germany, most employment agencies are employees of the Federal Employment Agency or the job center , who can commission third parties with the placement or with partial placement tasks (e.g. application coaching) to support them.

In Germany there are employment agencies

• Employed in the public service at state employment agencies such as the local employment agencies , the job centers of the Federal Employment Agency and the so-called option municipalities ,

where the recruitment agents in the job centers are called personal contact persons (pAp); or they work

• as employees or self-employed in private employment agencies .

history

The first attempts at job placement in Germany go back to the crisis of 1834–1837 and the years of hunger that followed. Henriette Heber (1795–1869), the head of the Dresden Poor Labor Institute, founded the “Association for Work and Workers Evidence” in Dresden in 1840. In 1893, as a result of a nationwide congress of the Free German Hochstift in Frankfurt on the social situation of the unemployed, the proposal came up to create communal institutions for job placement that receive reports of vacant jobs and make them available to job seekers. In 1895, Munich founded a municipal central labor record based on the model of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe . In the years before the First World War , other municipalities and states followed, which set up a public employment agency (e.g. in Münster , Bielefeld , Wiesbaden and Bavaria ) in so-called employment verification offices. Some of these activities were carried out in close cooperation with church and private welfare institutions .

At the end of the First World War (1914–1918), the German army was radically reduced in size due to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty ; Millions of soldiers were released and returned home. The war economy had to be converted back to a peace economy ; many war invalids suffered hardship; inflation (it lasted from 1914 to 1923) hampered the economy. (And also the desire of these factors of trade unions to regulate the employment services throughout the German Reich defined), led in 1920 to the establishment of the Reich Office for Employment and 1922. Labor Exchange Act (ANG), which organized the placement at the local level and the National Board of Employment housed in the Reich Labor Administration. The coupling of job placement and unemployment insurance , as it is still characteristic in Germany today, only came about with the law on job placement and unemployment insurance (AVAVG) of July 16, 1927 (in force from October 1, 1927); this was also the legal basis for the establishment of the Reichsanstalt für Arbeitsvermittlung and Unemployment Insurance (RAfAuA).

Employment agency and job center

Employment agencies are mainly active in the public sector in employment agencies and job centers . They advise the unemployed and other people seeking advice, etc. a. with regard to vacancies on the labor market and they provide information about opportunities for taking up work, further training, other benefits under the Social Security Code and promoting business start-ups . In addition, employment agencies are also the point of contact for regional companies and business associations ( employers ).

Employment agencies working in the area of ​​the Federal Agency include in detail

• advising unemployed or job-seeking citizens and helping them integrate into work
• Employer advice: qualified, comprehensive advice in the office and in the field, proactive job acquisition and special campaigns for employers;
• The support function for the filling of vacancies: services in the context and follow-up to the acceptance of the vacancy, such as agreements on the type of job publication, the number of placement proposals or tracking of the qualified initial reaction;
• Integration-supporting measures: arranging of workplace inspections and statements of the technical advisory service, labor market tests within the framework of work permit tests and for seasonal workers; Furthermore, employer-oriented performance advice and the processing of returns from placement suggestions.

However, many activities are outsourced to private service providers as part of procurement procedures. A study by Strotmann showed that in the first half of 2004 only about 13 percent of the personnel recruits in a sample of companies in Baden-Württemberg could be traced back to the activities of the agencies.

While SGB II introduced client-related strategies and employment- oriented case management , the placement in SGB ​​III relies on the standardization of services (so-called action programs). In many cases this results in a conflict between the professional self-image of the intermediary and the bureaucratic requirements of the organization.

However, contradicting requirements for intermediaries are also complained about in the job centers that are active in this area. Conflicts between promoting and sanctioning activation as well as between client and employer-oriented mediation are obvious here. While the employees of the job center who come from the municipal social administration often practice a socially integrative counseling concept with difficult clientele and mostly have a socio-educational qualification background, the employees posted from the employment administration tend to work as brokers according to their professional self-image and are geared towards rapid integration into the primary labor market. In the job centers today, however, many lateral entrants from different professions - often with fixed-term employment contracts - are employed as personal contacts. Different tariffs, service agreements and qualification requirements of employees of the social administration and the BA also hinder a fair distribution of work.

Education and training

Until 2005, the Federal University of Applied Sciences, Department of Employment Administration in Mannheim and Schwerin offered the degree course in employment promotion, which gave many graduates access to work as employment agencies. Since 2006, the University of the Federal Employment Agency - a state-recognized college for labor market management - based in Mannheim and Schwerin, has offered a degree in labor market management. a. prepared to work as an employment agency.

The internationally recognized Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) certificate is also widely used in Germany (over 700 people by 2013) as a further training course for career changers from other professions who work as an employment agency in job centers or optional municipalities .

Private employment agencies (PAV)

In August 1994 the placement monopoly of the Federal Employment Agency fell and in March 2002 the permit requirement. The permit had to be formally applied for at the responsible state employment office. For this purpose, the applicant had to provide appropriate information, which was checked and, if there were no concerns, the permit was initially granted for a limited period. After the expiry, another application had to be made and this was i. d. Usually granted indefinitely. Since then, the private employment agency (PAV) has been a free trade.

Private employment agencies work on the one hand for everyone who is looking for work (i.e. for job seekers or those interested in changing jobs) and on the other hand for companies and institutions that are looking for staff. The job seeker, employer or the state (e.g. Federal Employment Agency) can pay for the work or service. Private employment agencies also place jobseekers in exchange for placement vouchers issued by the employment agency in accordance with Section 45 Paragraph 4 Clause 3 No. 2 SGB III with a value of € 2,000 in principle (since January 1, 2008 up to € 2,500 in defined exceptional cases). In addition to the active placement in a desired employment relationship, your service includes assistance for the applicant such as profiling , coaching and preparation of application documents ( curriculum vitae , cover letter, etc.). In the case of a placement in accordance with Section 45 SGB ​​III, these must be provided free of charge by the employment agency .

The placement voucher (AVGS-MPAV)

In 2002 the placement voucher (VGS) was introduced to promote competition between state and commercial (free / private) employment agencies. In the following years, this labor market policy instrument, which was regulated in Section 421g SGB ​​III, which was repealed on March 31, 2012, was repeatedly continued and changed by politicians. With effect from April 1, 2012, a new, unlimited regulation came into force, through which the placement voucher was further developed into an activation and placement voucher (AVGS). All previous essential regulations have been adopted for the area of ​​job placement.

The placement voucher is a labor market policy instrument

• which can be used by those affected themselves;
• which is exclusively success-dependent and has an immediate effect: A placement fee is only paid if placement in work has actually taken place and the employment lasts at least 3 months. The 2000.00 euros can be billed in two installments, the first installment after 6 weeks, the second after 6 months. This amount includes the VAT , which is still paid from it;
• which requires direct placement in employment that is subject to social security contributions.

With the placement voucher, the exhibitor (employment agency, job center) confirms that he is entering into the payment obligation of the placement and releases him from payment.

The legal basis for the placement voucher is Section 45 Paragraph 4 - 7, Section 296 SGB ​​III and Section 16 Paragraph 1 Clause 1 No. 2 SGB ​​II .

Internationalization of employment services

In the course of the development of the European internal market , with the freedom of establishment , but especially after the consequences of the financial crisis of 2008/09 in southern Europe led to mass unemployment, there are increasing approaches to Europeanization and internationalization of job and training place placement. So far, however, only around 2 percent of EU citizens live and work in other EU countries. The EURES ( European Employment Services ) advisors at the employment agencies specialize in international job placement and also provide information on living and working conditions abroad.

Employment agency in Austria

The employees of the Austrian labor market service have similar tasks as those of the German employment agency. Here, too, there are placement vouchers that private recruiters receive for successful placements. Temporary employment agencies also play an important role in placement. Since 2005, the AMS has been one of the first employment services, alongside the Scandinavian placement services, to develop IT-based job information systems that customers can call up themselves. Interested parties can contact the workplace providers directly by e-mail. Companies can also contact people who have placed advertisements in it.

In addition, there are also organizations commissioned by the Public Employment Service that offer job placement services for special groups of people that are difficult to place (e.g. long-term unemployed , minimum income support recipients), often in combination with non-profit temporary workers.

Employment agency in Switzerland

The legal basis is the Employment Agency Act (AVG). It regulates private employment agencies and temporary employment . Anyone who regularly brings jobseekers together with employers for a fee requires a placement permit. Anyone who hires workers and makes them available to customers for work on a commercial basis requires a rental license. If the placement or lending is cross-border, a permit from the federal government is required. The Swiss labor market authority is responsible for the employment agency and unemployment insurance law. Your partners in carrying out these tasks are the cantons, the regional job placement centers, the logistics offices for labor market measures and the unemployment funds.

In Switzerland, private employment agencies are also referred to as temporary offices .

Activity of employment agencies in other countries

Netherlands

The public employment agency UWV ( Uitvoeringsinstituut Werknemers Verzekeringen ) WERKbedrijf emerged from various social security and health care institutions. In 2009 these were merged with the former employment offices, whose tasks UWV has also carried out since then. UWV helps with the job search, advises, informs and provides help. It is part of a network of partners and temporary employment agencies, so that most of the vacancies registered with these partners are also published in the WERKbedrijf's online database .

Private employment agencies and temporary employment agencies play an important role in placement. The temporary employment agencies are usually located in or next to the state job centers and also take care of people who are difficult to place after 12 months.

United Kingdom

The UK job placement system is highly centralized. The Ministry of Labor and Pensions (DWP) is responsible. At the same time, however, the system is the most liberal in the EU. There has been a state employment agency since 1909, initially primarily intended for casual workers. The main employment agencies in Great Britain today are the state employment offices, the Job Centers (officially since 2002: Jobcentre Plus service ), which are also responsible for unemployment benefits. In addition, there have been numerous private placement agencies since 1893, although their activities were not fully liberalized until 1973. Often they specialize in certain professional groups and areas of work and / or work subcontracted to the job centers.

The placement of jobseekers through the Jobcentre Plus service is outsourced to private providers after 12 months, which often successfully support groups that are difficult to place. State mediation can also be used by interested parties from abroad. An Overseas Placing Unit (OPU) mediates job offers and requests from other EU countries and helps foreign applicants. The Careers Offices help young job seekers between the ages of 16 and 25 . The public employment agency's online database also includes their sources of information and has one million visitors a week. Call centers are also playing a growing role in government employment agencies.

Ireland

The non-commercial employment agency in Ireland is the Foras Aiseanna Saothar / Training and Employment Authority (FAS). In addition to the head office, it maintains regional offices throughout the country and places both local and foreign interested parties. While the FAS is very important to the province, private recruitment agencies are well represented in the Irish capital, Dublin . They are often paid by employers, but not always. Often, jobs are not advertised directly by companies, but by commissioned agents. Applicants only turn to those who also conduct the pre-selection and initial interviews. Reputable recruitment agencies are licensed by the Employment Agency Section of the Department of Enterprise and Employment .

France

The following parts of this section since 2011 seem out of date to be : Outdated data.
Please help to research and insert the missing information .

The French employment agency Agence national pour l'emploi (ANPE) is publicly organized and strongly centralized, but many tasks are outsourced to private service providers as part of procurement procedures. The pressure from business towards greater regionalization and privatization is strong here, while the SNU-ANPE union has been fighting against the privatization of mediation for 10 years. There is a special job agency in France for academics and managers, the Agence pour l'emploi des Cadres (APEC), with around 400,000 private and 25,000 corporate customers annually.

Italy

The Italian employment agencies are mostly employees of the local Centro per l'Impiego or Centro di Iniziativa Locale per l'Occupazione (CILO). A contact point for young people looking for work are the local Informagiovani. The Centri d'Informazione Disoccupati (DIS) of the trade unions provide information on further training and job search . The higher-level authority of all employment offices is the Ministero del Lavoro e della Previdenza Sociale . The approval of private agencies for job placement and temporary employment is tied to strict requirements. They must be organized in the form of a corporation or a cooperative .

Spain

In Spain, the Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal is responsible for job placement and has a branch in each province ( Dirección Provincial del Servicio Público de Empleo Estatal ). The employees of the local oficinas de empleo (employment offices) advise unemployed people on job placement, career choice, further training measures and employment promotion measures and accept applications for unemployment benefits. The placement of employment by temporary employment agencies is strictly regulated in Spain. Since 1995 there have also been private employment agencies on the Spanish labor market. The fee for a placement is borne by either the employer or the employee. The prices may not exceed certain government-set maximum limits.

Denmark

The Danish employment service was municipalized in 2009. In contrast to the German optional municipalities, the municipal job centers are controlled by state targets and a corresponding allocation of resources. There is a strict activation policy for the integration of migrants and benchmarking between the municipalities with regard to placement and integration times, which has led to improved placement successes in recent years. Danish workers made redundant Employees are entitled to unemployment benefit of up to 90 percent of their last salary. For this they are obliged to accept any job that the employment agency offers them, otherwise their support will be cut. The employees of the individual job shops can concentrate fully on the placement. The calculation of benefit entitlements is a matter for the unemployment insurance funds, which are often linked to the trade unions. This leaves the mediators more time to draft individual action plans for the job seekers or to keep in touch with the employers through company visits.

Sweden

The Swedish employment agency ( arbedsformedlingen ) works in a similar way to the Federal Employment Agency. However, the telephone and the Internet play a larger role in the switching process. A Swedish newspaper reported in 2006 that a recruitment agency in a Swedish labor exchange places an average of one job per year. This was brought to light by an investigation report by the RUT investigative committee set up by the Swedish Reichstag. The investigation also showed that 75% of all jobs are mediated through contacts and that in 90% of all cases the employment office was not involved at all. The bourgeois opposition blamed the lack of (private) competition for this.

Russia

The Russian Federal Employment Agency has a relatively high level of involvement in employment services compared to many Western European countries. It should be around 15%. There are also numerous private agencies and NGOs that deal with job placement. Rostrud also promotes business start-ups, retraining, further training and, since the crisis of 2009, temporary job creation measures. Rostrud has also had an online job exchange since 2009, which is also used in Ukraine and Belarus.

United States

The United States Employment Service was founded in the United States in 1933 during the Great Depression . He gradually took up work in all states and played a role in job creation and the organization of the war economy from 1941 to 1945. He was often exposed to allegations of racial discrimination.

Cities and municipalities in the United States do not have employment offices. The US Department of Labor has therefore set up its own website to provide tips on looking for a job in the US and information on legal issues. The placement is largely deregulated. Most referrals are made through the Internet or through advertisements in daily newspapers. However, there is also a dense network of small and medium-sized private recruitment agencies, which are often highly specialized and can help with job searches. A distinction is made between two forms:

• Intermediaries ( recruiters ) with commission from companies (this is the more common case)
• Intermediary with fees from the employee

US law gives the mediator a choice to choose one of the options. Church bodies and social initiatives are also active in integrating disadvantaged groups (e.g. migrants) into the labor market, often as part of state-funded projects.

Australia

The Australian state employment agency Employment National is in the process of restructuring. Most of the local offices have been privatized. The placement of temporary work in particular is almost completely deregulated. Job fairs and the Internet play a major role in job placement in the sparsely populated continent.

Japan

The public employment office ( Hello Work ) is a state institution for advice and free placement of jobs. Career advice centers and placement centers for foreigners ( gaikokujin koyô sâbisu sentâ ) are separate. The labor market was largely liberalized in 2004. Private intermediaries play a role above all in the area of ​​temporary and agency work, in which over a third of the workforce in Japan is already active.

China

Since the introduction of free job search in China, job placement has also been partially liberalized. In addition to the system of state employment offices, which has an online database that employers can access free of charge, but which often only records low-skilled job seekers (often with outdated data), there is a network of private or semi-public job agencies, Human Resource -Companies and temporary employment agencies emerged. In addition, private networks and local black markets for low-skilled workers played a major role. Domestic staff has been placed since the 1990s, primarily by the Beijing Women's Association.

However, over 200 million jobseekers, some of whom are highly qualified, can only fall back on quantitatively inadequate (and in some cases very expensive or not very professionally working) capacities in placement.

Growth imbalances and the dismantling of the state sector continue to lead to a considerable regional, sectoral and qualification "mismatch" on the labor market as well as massive internal migration , which the placement system is hardly able to cope with. In some cases, there is already a demographic labor shortage. While on the one hand the China International Contractors Association (ChinGG) as a state-funded non-profit organization which, on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, takes on the placement of foreign specialists in China and Chinese workers abroad and the universities expand their career services , millions of migrant workers are still expanding reporting system originating from planned economic times. The standard of electronic recruiting corresponds roughly to the European level. The trend is clearly towards flexible informal employment.

Little is known about the qualifications of employment agencies and advisers. In the area of ​​advising and placing university graduates, the international Global Career Development Facilitator certificate, which 3,000 people have acquired, plays a certain role.

See also

• Temporary employment

literature

• Böhringer, Daniela / Karl, Ute / Müller, Hermann / Schröer, Wolfgang / Wolff, Stephan (2012): Keeping the case workable: Conversations in job centers with young people , Opladen: Budrich, ISBN 978-3-86649-451- 0 .
• Eberwein, Wilhelm / Tholen, Jochen (1987): The public job placement as a political-social process , Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, ISBN 978-3-593-33871-2 .
• Hielscher, Volker / Ochs, Peter (2009): Unemployed as customers? Consultations in job placement between print and dialogue , Berlin: edition sigma, ISBN 978-3-8360-7282-3 .
• Ludwig-Mayerhofer, Wolfgang / Behrend, Olaf / Sondermann, Ariadne (2009): In search of lost work. Unemployed people and job brokers in the new labor market regime , Konstanz: UVK Verlag, ISBN 978-3-86764-155-5 .
• Sowa, Frank / Staples, Ronald (Ed.) (2017): Advice and mediation in the welfare state , Baden-Baden: Nomos / edition sigma, ISBN 978-3-8487-3949-3 .

Web links

Commons : Employment Agents  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• IAB information platform Private Employment Services of the Institute for Employment Research offers information on the state of research and the discussion about private employment services as a supplement to public employment services. Interested parties who do not present a placement voucher can be obliged to accept personal liability, i.e. to pay themselves
• Website of the BA for job placement abroad

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christine Rädlinger : 100 Years of the Munich Employment Office 1895–1995 . Employment Office Munich, 1995, p. 18.
2. ↑ http://miami.uni-muenster.de/servlets/DerivateServlet/Derivate-5843/diss_brockfeld.pdf
3. ↑ http://www.bpb.de/themen/AKY07D,3,0,Die_%F6ffigte_Arbeitsvermittlung.html Website of the Federal Agency for Political Education
4. ↑ H. Strotmann, degree of involvement in the search for personnel and market shares of the employment agencies in 2004 , IAW short report No. 3/2005
5. ↑ Holger Schütze (2008), Diversity of models in job placement? in: ARBEIT H. 3, p. 181
6. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Stefan Sell, Modernization and Professionalization of Job Placement , Expertise of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn 2006, p. 80
8. ↑ http://www.job-promotor.de/
9. ↑ https://ec.europa.eu/eures/main.jsp?acro=job&lang=de&catId=52&parentId=0
10. ↑ http://www.ams.or.at/ Website of the Austrian Employment Service
11. ↑ http://www.jobroom.at/ Online information system of the AMS
12. ↑ http://www.arbeitplus-wien.at/katalog.pdf
13. ↑ Private employment agencies and staff leasing , Employment Agency Act, Switzerland.
14. ↑ Directory of approved employment agencies and recruitment agencies
15. ↑ Public employment agency
16. ↑ http://www.werk.nl/ Website of the Dutch employment agency
17. ↑ http://www.ba-auslandsvermittlung.de/lang_de/nn_2752/DE/LaenderEU/Niederlande/Arbeiten/arbeiten-knoten.html__nnn=true
18. ↑ Oliver Bruttel, The Privatization of Public Employment Services : Australia, the Netherlands and Great Britain: A Comparison from a Neo-Institutional Economic Perspective. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2005
19. ↑ Oliver Bruttel, The Privatization of Public Employment Services : Australia, the Netherlands and Great Britain: A Comparison from a Neo-Institutional Economic Perspective. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2005
20. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated August 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
21. ↑ http://jobvacanciescentre.com/
22. ↑ http://www.eu-info.de/arbeiten-europa/Arbeiten-in-der-EU/arbeiten-irland/
23. ↑ http://www.anpe.fr/
24. ↑ http://institute.adecco.com/Research/Articles/Documents/2009_Europe_German_PartektivenenZwischen.pdf  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
25. ↑ http://www.justlanded.com/deutsch/Italien/Artikel/Jobs/Italienische-Arbeitsaemter
26. ↑ http://www.spanieninfo.biz/de/wirtschaft/arbeitsmarkt
27. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated August 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
28. ↑ Labor market: hardship and care. In: Spiegel Online . November 29, 2006, accessed June 9, 2018 . 
29. ↑ http://www.arbetsformedlingen.se/ Website of the Swedish employment service
30. ↑ http://www.schwedenforum.com/read.php?1,55929,55966
31. ^ Massive criticism of employment agencies in: sverigesradio.se , April 26, 2006.
32. ^ Website of the Russian Employment Agency
33. ↑ http://www.trudvsem.ru/ Rostrud online job exchange
34. ↑ Risa L. Goluboff in: Eric Arnesen (ed.): The human tradition in American labor history. 2004. ISBN 0842029877 .
35. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from June 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
36. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2001 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Australian Employment Agency website; http://www.jobsearch.gov.au/ Australian Jobsearch - database website  
37. ↑ Oliver Bruttel, The Privatization of Public Employment Services : Australia, the Netherlands and Great Britain. A comparison from a neo-institutional economics perspective , Baden-Baden: Nomos 2005
38. ↑ http://employment.byron.com.au/agencies List of private job agencies
39. ^ Feng Xu: The Emergence of Temporary Staffing Agencies in China. ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal. 2009, Vol. 30, p. 431. 
40. ↑ http://www.wildcat-www.de/dossiers/china/chd_hausangestektiven.html, accessed January 9, 2014
41. ↑ Dirk Holtbrügge, Jonas F. Puck: Business Success in China: Strategies for the World's Largest Market. Springer, 2008, p. 181.
42. ^ Hans H. Bass: Effects of WTO accession on the Chinese labor market. (PDF; 173 kB)
43. ↑ Alexander Fedossov: The Chinese labor market: Concepts and measures for the integration of "rural refugees" in urban labor markets. Grin: E-Book, 2007.
44. ↑ Weiguo Ji: The GCDF certification is off to a quick start in China! The GCDF connection, 2005.