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EMPLOYMENT

Denmark tasks expert group with ‘thorough reform of unemployment system’

Denmark's government has asked a new expert group to find ways of reforming the country's employment system to make it both less costly and more flexible.

Jobcentre
The expert group will look at reforming the employment centres operating in Danish municipalities. Photo: Mathias Eis/Ritzau Scanpix

“The citizen must be at the centre, and freedom must be given to both case handlers and the unemployed, at the same time as expenses are reduced by 3 billion kroner by 2030,” read a press release from the country’s employment ministry announcing the group. 

The government has appointed Claus Thustrup Kreiner, a professor at Copenhagen University, to lead the six member group, which is tasked with submitting its report by June 2024.

“There is a need to carry out a thorough reform of the entire employment system, where we see far too many examples of people getting stuck,” Employment Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said in the press message. “We want a more dignified system, and then we must focus on the core task – getting people into work.”

Kreiner said he was “proud to be entrusted with this great task, which means so much to so many people – both on one and the other side of the table”.

“I am also aware that it will not be an easy task,” he said. “One year may sound like a lot, but there are many branches and buds that we in the expert group have to delve into.” 

The group of four male and two female members will also include his Copenhagen University colleague Jakob Egholt Søgaard, Michael Rosholm, Professor of Economics at Aarhus University, and Iben Bolvig, senior researcher from the Danish Center for Social Science research. 

There will also be two members from Denmark’s municipalities: Vibeke Jensen, head of the employment area at Aarhus Municipality, and Peter Karm, municipal manager at Haderslev Municipality. 

The reform will also involve a so-called “follow-up group”, including all the key stakeholders, who will continuously provide input to the expert group.

This group will include Danske A-kasser, which represents the key unemployment funds, The Association of Danish Employers, and other representatives from municipalities and employers. 

According to Statistics Denmark, 81,000 people in Denmark were unemployed in April, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 2.8 percent of the workforce.

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