Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) 2023

3. Assessment of policies to address skill shortages and improve matching

3.2. Geographical inequalities in accessibility of PES ⁽³³²⁾

PES play a crucial role in connecting jobseekers with employers. They help to match supply and demand in the labour market by providing information, job search assistance, and placement. They also maintain connections with local employers to provide information and help with hiring processes. While PES offer an increasing share of their services online, ⁽³³³⁾ the physical availability of PES support within easy reach remains essential for many workers. This applies particularly to jobseekers with low digital skills and other forms of disadvantage, including older jobseekers, those with health problems, or possibly a low level of education. Some aspects of PES services may also prove difficult to provide online. Accordingly, the geographical location of PES centres has a role in the quality of job search support and can influence local labour supply.

In most regions, ⁽³³⁴⁾ PES centres are within easy driving distance for a large share of the population (Chart 3.8). ⁽³³⁵⁾ In the countries covered, close to 70% of the population lives in regions with high accessibility of PES centres within a 30-minute drive. ⁽³³⁶⁾ However, a number of countries show some variation in the accessibility of PES centres, with accessibility lower in remote regions (e.g. Fuerteventura, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, or Sassari in Sardinia, Italy) or in regions with low population density (e.g. Avila, a Province northwest of Madrid in Spain, or Lozère, a département in the south of France). For those who cannot easily access PES by car, public transport may offer an important alternative. ⁽³³⁷⁾ Only a small share of people live in regions in which a majority of people are within a 15-minute walk of a PES centre.

There are strong urban-rural differences in the geographical accessibility of PES offices (Chart 3.9). Across metropolitan regions, a very large majority (96%) of the population live in regions with high accessibility of PES centres within a 30-minute drive (top-left panel). In non-metropolitan regions, the share of people within driving distance of a PES centre is generally lower. These differences may reflect a combination of lower number of centres per capita, lower population density, and less developed transport infrastructure. More specifically, only 69% of people in non-metropolitan regions with access to a small FUA (bottom-left panel) and 46% of people in non-metropolitan remote regions (bottom-right panel) live in regions with high accessibility.

The accessibility of PES centres varies between non-metropolitan regions within countries. Variation is highest in large countries like France, Italy and Spain. In the Spanish province of Fuerteventura, for example, only 17% of people live within a 30-minute drive of a PES centre, compared to 86% in La Palma. In France, only 37% of people in Lozère are within a 30-minute drive of a PES centre, compared to 97% of the population in the Deux-Sèvres département in the west of the country. Variation in access between nonmetropolitan regions is also high in countries with low population density, such as Sweden and Finland.

Low accessibility of PES services within close distance can potentially reduce the efficiency of matching labour supply and demand at regional level. This warrants further analysis, however. A simple correlation analysis finds no clear relationship between accessibility of PES centres and regional unemployment, highlighting the role of other drivers. ⁽³³⁸⁾ The relationship between access to PES and unemployment rates is not straightforward. In practice, PES locations in most countries reflect institutional factors and constraints, alongside local labour market characteristics. Other contexts to consider include the diversity of PES models, their respective services, ⁽³³⁹⁾ users’ profiles, and the degree of digitalisation of PES services. Cooperation with local partners in the delivery of services is another essential factor, particularly in supporting vulnerable clients. Many PES compensate for the lack of a strong territorial network through partnerships with locally anchored organisations, providing outreach to inactive people, activation services, or upskilling and reskilling opportunities.