Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Khun Elawat Chandraprasert;
Distinguished Guests and Participants

It is a very great pleasure to join you this morning at this important training workshop focusing on employment services. Before I begin, on behalf of the ILO, I would like to express my appreciation to the Government of Japan for the financial support it has provided for this workshop, and to the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand for its assistance in hosting this activity.

This technical consultation is an important development for our region. It marks the first time in Asia and the Pacific that the ILO has been able to bring together public employment service officials and private employment agency operators. It offers us an opportunity to exchange views and experiences, and to improve our shared understanding of this field. I hope that we will find new ways to improve cooperation, and new guidelines to help this process. I am particularly pleased to be able to welcome representatives of private employment agencies. I am looking forward to hearing more about your achievements, challenges, and frustrations, and to hearing your views on ways in which you can help make the labour markets in your countries work more efficiently.

The role that private agencies can play has already been recognized by the International Labour Conference. In 1997, the ILC adopted the Private Employment Agencies Convention, No 181, marking a significant change in thinking. The old theory had held that labour market institutions should be dealt with by the public sector. This 1997 Convention, though, recognizes and accepts that labour market institutions throughout the world are changing – and encourages cooperation between public employment services and private employment agencies. Old attitudes are giving way to new ones. If we look back just 15 years ago, governments were often highly critical of private employment agencies, sometimes suggesting that they were not sensitive to national interests, that they were motivated by profit and greed, and that they "exploited" already-vulnerable unemployed workers. On the other side of the fence, private operators complained about governments and public employment services, calling them slow and bureaucratic, and saying they wasted taxpayers’ money providing services that the private sector could offer more cheaply. Today, the employment services landscape is very different. In the vast majority of countries, particularly industrialized ones, the concept of a public employment services monopoly is now dead. Public and private operators now see that they can work together much more effectively.

So, what has brought about this new approach? One of the most important answers is globalization. Today’s world is very different from anything we might have imagined, even two decades ago. Change – rapid change – is part of daily life. It is one thing we can rely on. The revolution in information and communications technology that sparked globalization is far from over. In the world of work its effects are dramatic. The way we work and the way we organize that work is constantly changing. So, too, are our labour markets. They are much more volatile, much less predictable, much more complex. We do not talk about a single labour market any more. Instead, there are many – related to technological change and new patterns of production. These new labour markets call for new ways of thinking about labour market institutions – which can link demand and supply quickly and effectively. In this new globalizing world, people, too, are looking at traditional functions with new eyes. We have seen monopoly practices in banking, telecommunications, power and transport come to an end – and, in the same way, people are now looking at labour markets with new eyes. Job seekers and employers, too, are different. They have matured, and they no longer accept that their choices should be limited.

Other changes have occurred within governments, and private agencies themselves. On the government side, budget restrictions have led to ‘down-sizing’ and ‘right-sizing’ in the public service. Governments are now thinking "small and smart" – not "big and bureaucratic". And in the private sector, agencies have learned the benefits of organizing, both nationally and internationally. They have influenced government decision-making at all levels and, at the same time, they have introduced self-regulation to ban unfair and questionable practices.

We can see that we are working in a changed environment. The question we need to ask today is, how do we do this most effectively? What kind of arrangements will make labour markets operate most effectively? How can public and private employment services develop the kinds of links and alliances that will lead to closer cooperation? How can we encourage services that complement one another, and avoid unproductive duplication? The answers will, of course, vary from country to country. Still, we can see some general trends.

The networked world has huge implications for public and private services alike – offering both challenges and opportunities. Direct job matching through information technology is increasingly important. This means much more than just posting vacancy notices on the Internet. Ultimately, we will see interactive websites where job seekers and employers can actually complete transactions. Public and private operators have to find a new balance between traditional office-based placement, and the new do-it-yourself Internet options. Many private agencies are responding to this by diversifying – branching out into areas that include counselling, aptitude testing, skills testing, and training. As the knowledge economy gathers pace, these activities will become more and more important.

Indeed, private employment agencies’ involvement in the labour markets as a whole is likely to rise. Tomorrow’s jobseekers are much more likely than their predecessors to find employment through a private operator. In many cases this private firm will be carrying out subcontract work for a public employment service – something we can expect to become much more common. Even so, some public operations will stay public – such as, policy-making and analysis, and producing data on the labour market. In the same way, other areas are likely to stay private – including staff audits, job analysis, performance appraisal schemes and human resource panning for private sector clients. Other areas of change include fees - we can expect more of these from public services. Although a minimum service will be provided free – extras will probably cost more. Private agencies, for their part, are moving towards fees for both job seekers and employers. Job seekers pay for services other than placement (for example, counselling, and testing) – while employers pay for all services.

This meeting comes at a very appropriate time. Your task is a challenging one – finding a new balance between public and private employment services. The rewards, though, will be significant. I think we can look forward to significant and positive changes in this field – to more cooperation between governments and private operators, to more consultation, and to finding new ways to make labour markets work better. I look forward to hearing the results of your discussions, and to hearing more about the follow-up activities you plan for your individual countries. Once again, I thank you for your commitment and your presence here today – and I wish you a productive and enjoyable workshop.