The Marketization of Employment Services in UK, Germany and Denmark Inherent Dilemmas and Trade-Offs

Since the late 1990s OECD countries have contracted out their formerly public employment services and or introduced varying forms of marketization. By marketization we understand the introduction by public services of price-based competition among non-public providers in order to govern the procurement of employment services.

Based on an in-depth three-country comparative project, this paper examines what type of general dilemmas occurs when public employment services are marketized and how are these dilemmas dealt with differently in Germany, UK and Denmark. These three countries represent different regime types under both welfare regimes and varieties of capitalism theories.

The analysis shows that there are some inherent common dilemmas and trade-offs when employment services are marketized, but also that the three countries tries to balance these in different ways with different types of consequences.