Since its 2007 launch, USAID Armenia, Social Protection Systems Strengthening (SPSS) Project has been actively partnering with the State Employment Service Agency (SESA) of the Ministry of Labor and Social Issues of Armenia (MLSI) to transform from a passive government agency, that pays people when they are not working, into an active leader in active labor market programs, that help people get back to work. The use of active programs versus passive aims to reduce unemployment, assist employers in finding qualified workers and provide on-going job seeking support to SESA clients.

In the process of developing Employment Programs Performance Measures

Active Labor Market Programs (ALMPs) are a worldwide best practice used to reduce the risk of unemployment and to increase the earnings capacity of workers. Although SESA had received information about active labor measures from other donors, such programs had not been comprehensively implemented in Armenia until SPSS introduced job fairs, job clubs, group job search, employer relations and performance measures. Each has important social and economic objectives and has been implemented to enhance labor supply, increase labor demand (e.g., public works, subsidies), or improve the functioning of the labor market with core principles of efficiently provided customer service, continuous improvement and accountability.

SPSS concentrated early support on Job Fairs due to MLSI's lack of resources for SESA's capacity building, as well as, low awareness and critical expectations of the public about services provided by SESA. As the main supporter, SPSS wanted to deliver a public relations statement about the quality changes of SESA services. By carrying out step-by-step trainings for SESA staff and providing detailed manuals SPSS assured sustainability. SPSS provided oversight and on-the-job training for job fair planning, preparing job seekers for job fairs, and training employer participants on how to present their companies and use job fairs effectively for filling vacancies and creating applicant database.

As a result of a first big, professional Yerevan Job Fair, jointly sponsored by SPSS and SESA in October 2007, 5000 job seekers learned about SESA, 100 employers started using SESA services, and SESA measured over a 20% increase of employers using employment centers and a 12% increase in job placements. SESA successfully created a job fair culture by conducting 3 more job fairs in May-June 2008 in Yerevan, Goris and Abovyan, and the largest regional job fair in Gyumri in October 2008, which has the highest unemployment rate in the country. The Gyumri job fair advertized 150 current vacancies for over 1000 job seekers. In addition, one of the major outcomes was that MLSI included the support for SESA to organize 6 more Job Fairs throughout Armenia into its 2009 annual budget.

Job Clubs and Job Search capacity building continued the shift of SESA to be more responsive to job seeker needs, which was a new approach in SESA methodology. More of the unemployed are seeking job search assistance at employment centers and using the more efficient services. Currently, due to SPSS support, renovations have been completed in three of SESA’s regional offices in Gavar, Charentsavan and Hrazdan, making them into model service offices with meeting space and job search equipment. The renovations created new opportunities for group job search and job club sessions assisting more unemployed to find jobs. The SESA staffs have new skills and more motivation to successfully implement new programs which will support unemployment reduction.

Employer Relations capacity building focused on employer needs in all of SESA’s 51 employment centers. SPSS introduced new employer services, new methods to gain employers’ confidence through use of labor market data and focus groups and better services.

Within the Active Labor Market Programs is the ability to measure program performance to assure change and continuous improvement throughout all 51 employment centers and SESA headquarters. The technical capacity building includes training and jointly developing performance measure indicators, as well as development of a Manual on how to use these indicators for sustaining this new technology. These trainings were carried out by SPSS experts from October 2007 through August 2008. This will allow the employment centers to measure programs’ successes with current and professional labor market data, to study why some programs work better than others and assess the tools to effect adjustment that continuously improve past performance.

SPSS support introduced new techniques and enriched already existing ones, based on the internationally accepted best practices of ALMPs. The economic orientation of an ALMP strategy is to improve the functioning of the labor market, increase productivity, support disadvantaged or at-risk workers, support at-risk employers or industries, and combinations of the above. In this context, SPSS uses ALMPs as the most effective type of intervention to bring change in SESA’s activities and to continue building its capacity for improving future employment and earnings prospects in a cost effective manner.