The Initiative“Networking Regional Labour Market Observatories” is oriented towards bringing all regional labour market observatories in Europe together into one network in order to facilitate the quick and systematic access to new methods and practices. At the same time, it is important to provide a channel for lively exchange between the observatories about the empirical application of these methods. Functional labour markets represent a significant prerequisite for the successful economic development of regions. However, in many regions there is insufficient suitable data for the optimal operation of the public and private sector in these labour markets. Regional labour market observatories help correct this.
They offer continuously, differentiated labour market information: data on regional or local employment and professional development, on unemployment and inactivity as well as vocational and further education. The transparency thus created not only benefits the regional labour market agencies and regional and local governments by supporting their involvement in labour markets and the local economy. It also benefits enterprises, the unemployed and labour offices, educational and training institutions as more targeted and effective strategies for actors are made possible through this higher transparency.
Currently, there are an estimated 300 regional labour market observatories located in European Union countries. The last few years have shown a significant increase in their numbers, a trend that continues unabated. The methods applied for data generation and distribution are extremely heterogeneous, greatly complicating interregional or transnational comparisons. Possible synergies have not been realized from the isolated, parallel developments in single regions, a significant improvement in this current situation can be expected through a systematic, European-wide networking of the observatories. This would allow methodological knowledge and operational experiences to be exchanged and would promote the likelihood that common approaches to labour market information development will be taken. This will enhance the progress towards standardisation and, thereby, permit interregional, international and European comparisons and the use of information by people and agencies across the EU rather than just in the local region or member state.
