KUMU - The changing role of municipalities in employment and business services

KUMU – The changing role of municipalities in employment and business services

The changing role of municipalities in employment and business services study examines the possibilities of small municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants to implement place-based labour market policies in the TE Services 2024 reform. The responsibility for organising TE services (employment and economic development services) will be transferred to municipalities at the beginning of 2025. There were 197 municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants in Mainland Finland in 2022, so the research is targeted at a significant part of the municipalities in Finland.

The aim of the TE Services 2024 reform is to strengthen local labour services, increase cooperation between employment, business and education services, and promote the matching of the workforce. The TE Services 2024 reform aims to strengthen the opportunities for place-based development in employment and business development services.

The central question of the study is how small municipalities can influence the organisation of services so that it strengthens their vitality. The frame of reference for the study is the perspective of place-based development. The concept of place-basedness refers to the approach of reallocating resources in a place-based manner. Place-based policy is characterized by the effort to identify and exploit the local strengths and potentials.

The research has three objectives:

1. To map the travel-to-work areas, employment and unemployment, the availability of skilled labour and the state of employment policy of small-scale municipalities.
2. To explore the possibilities of municipalities to link employment services to business and education services and to exploit their opportunities and challenges in organising the services.
3. To study the models of municipal employment services and how municipalities are preparing for the reform of employment services.