Labour market policies in the framework of Sustainable Development Strategies

Abstract

During the last decades of the last century, the principal objective of employment policies was to reduce the high and persistent unemployment. Subsequently, they were reoriented towards improving the quality of the employment generated. Because of the international financial crisis starting at 2008, the unemployment rates increased rapidly, so the political object focuses once again on reducing unemployment and generating employment, adding the perspective of employment quality or decent work.

This article studies the evolution of the employment policies objectives and measures, and their impact on economic development, through the labor market. The first section contains a classification of employment policies, according to how they act to anticipate the unemployment situation, on the supply side, the demand side, or jointly, in the labor market; or how they act to reduce the lack of income due to the loss of employment, i.e. compensatory policies. The second section compiles a theoretical review of the effects of these different employment policies in the labor market. The following sections show the evolution of the different objectives and measures of employment policies during the Great Recession. In the conclusions section, we link employment policies with the Sustainable Development Goals to achieve in 2030.