Are they working? Market Orientation and the Effectiveness of Active Labour Market Programmes in Ireland

This paper presents the first findings of a new study of the labour market impact of a range of active labour market programmes (ALMPs) in Ireland. The paper combines the results of two individual-level data sets to compare the employment outcomes of participants in ALMPs with a comparison group of non-participants over the 1994-1996 period. The analysis focuses on employment probabilities two years post-programme, and shows that programmes with strong linkages to the labour market are more likely to improve the job prospects of participants than those characterised by weak market linkages. The importance of market orientation is maintained when account is taken of the influence of individual characteristics such as age, gender and educational qualifications as well as previous labour market experience. The study builds on earlier work which demonstrated the importance of the market orientation of programmes for young peoples' employment prospects (O'Connell and McGinnity, 1997a), but the new analysis extends these findings to the entire population of participants in ALMPs - including older as well as young participants. The paper also examines the impact of programmes among different population sub-groups, including: the long- versus the short-term unemployed, women versus men, and older versus younger participants.