European social statistics. Labour market policy – expenditure and participants – data 2004. 2006 edition

This year's publication is notable for two reasons. Firstly, it includes for the first time data from the new EU Member States (except Cyprus, Malta, Poland and Slovenia) and for two of the Candidate countries (Bulgaria and Romania). Secondly, it is also the first year that LMP data collection was launched jointly with OECD. Both organisations have agreed to adopt the Eurostat methodology. The publication presents data on public expenditure on Labour Market Policy (LMP) measures and numbers of participants in these measures (stocks, entrants and exits). Policy measures covered are only those targeted to people who are unemployed, or in risk of involuntary job-loss, and inactive persons who are currently not part of the labour force, but who would like to enter the labour market and are disadvantaged in some way. Labour market policy measures are classified in two ways: by type of action and by type of expenditure. The type of action refers to the way in which the measure acts to achieve its objectives (e.g. training measures or employment incentives). The type of expenditure indicates how the payment is made and who the main recipient is.