Public employment programmes in the EU during the Great Recession: lessons for a European Job Guarantee

Minsky’s proposal for a Job Guarantee (JG) as a strategy for full employment dates back to 1986. It is based on public employment programmes (PEPs), which have been utilized to address long-term unemployment during major economic crises in the USA and Europe since the 1930s, including the recent Great Recession. PEPs are multi-purpose tools whose objectives and design are not necessarily based on Minsky’s theoretical arguments and principles for a JG, such as universal coverage or voluntary participation. During the Great Recession, the design of PEPs in the EU was largely influenced by the “activation approach” to labour market policy, which had been promoted by the European Employment Strategy (EES) since its ratification by the Amsterdam Treaty of the EU in 1997. However, several experiments with JG programmes have also been conducted in various EU Member States in recent years. This has led some post-Keynesian economists and the European Trade Union Confederation to advocate for the establishment of a European JG aimed at eliminating long-term unemployment across the EU. The article first discusses the functions of PEP under alternative theoretical and policy frameworks, expanding in more detail Minsky’s JG proposal and the “activation paradigm” of labour market policy. It then examines the variety of goals and rationales of the PEPs implemented in the EU during the Great Recession. Finally, it delves into the recent experiences of JG programmes in Greece and France to draw lessons for the design of a European JG, as the countercyclical component of the EES.