A Stakeholder-Based Approach to Cross-Policy Performance Evaluation of Promotion Employment Programs

In recent years, the government has endorsed wage subsidies as a policy instrument to deal with this country’s diverse unemployment since financial crisis of 2007. The major purpose of this paper is to compare implementation process and effectiveness of four selected promotion employment policies from the stakeholder approach. The research considers Diverse Employment Project, Instant Employment Plan, Workplace Experience for Youth, and Promotion of Employment through Improving Quality Human Project as cross-policy research targets. Those programs are characterized as types of wage subsidies policy to raise employment levels. This paper conducts a telephone survey to obtain insights into wage subsidy design and implementation issues. The research argues that although wage subsidies may be successful at creating jobs, they should not be seen as the primary or dominant policy instrument for dealing with the broader unemployment problem. The research also finds that grant standards are inconsistent with the each other; it shows trade-off and competition among the programs. To enhance the effectiveness of wage subsidies, they should preferably be linked to structured workplace training, be targeted to industries where employment will be responsive to changes in labor costs, and be focused on the unemployment. The research suggests that the relevant authorities review and improve existing administrative operations of those programs, the contents of streamlining processes and operations to reduce administrative procedure pressure.