Labour Market Policies and Recruitment in Europe and Italy

Abstract

Over the last few years, most studies and labour market policies have focused on the competence of people seeking employment. Few studies have tackled the issue from the point of view of employers and how policy might affect the personnel recruitment. The aim of this article is to try to understand the impact of labour policy on the processes involved in seeking personnel, with specific reference to business organizations. After examining the strategic, organisational and environmental variables that affect the personnel recruitment, the study focuses on analysing active and passive labour policies in Europe and Italy. The results that emerge highlight the fact that labour policy affects certain specific aspects of the personnel recruitment: employee turnover, an individual’s employability, outplacement, efficiency of matching between job supply and demand, competitiveness of candidates and their productivity, efficient allocation of job offers, crowding-out effect, degree of selectivity and contingency of search campaigns. The article ends with a few observations regarding the limitations of the study and future research.