Digitalization of Public Employment Service

Abstract

The article provides the results of the study conducted by the Russian scholars within the framework of an international scientific and educational project on the management efficiency of Public Employment Services in Russia (School of Public Administration, Lomonosov Moscow State University) and in Germany (Hochschule der Bundesagentur für Arbeit (HdBA)) for the period from January 2019 to June 2020. The study aims to identify solutions to the problems that prevent digitalization of public employment services (PES). The article focuses on the evaluation of methods used by PES to render their services and assessment of prospects for the providing those services in an electronic format. For this purpose, the content analysis of PES’ web-sites was carried out on the examples of “pilot regions” — constituent entities of the Russian Federation that are part of the Central and Ural Federal Districts, as well as surveys of citizens and employers were conducted in electronic form. The results showed that PES do not function effectively as they could and, therefore, some significant changes in their activities are required. The recent pandemic has highlighted the weaknesses in PES’ activity such as preservation of archaic forms of interaction with citizens and employers, provision of services that are more efficiently rendered by private recruiting services or commercial online services, and, as a result, loss in the labor market. At the same time, it has revealed the following priorities for the development of PES, supported by the availability of access to government databases: most services in fully electronic format, public services for persons who are not demanded by commercial employment services, and payment of unemployment benefits without the need to appear in person.