Most customer, employer, business services to go to towns

The Ministerial Working Group on Promoting Employment on Tuesday decided that the majority of personal customer, employer and business services currently under the responsibility of Employment and Economic Development Offices (TE Offices) would be transferred to municipalities in 2024.

At the same time, the procurement of these services would be transferred from the ELY Centres to municipalities, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment in a press release.

The central government would be responsible for managing employment services and its nationwide operation.

At present, central government authorities, i.e. TE Offices, TE administration’s Customer Service Centre and ELY Centres, organise employment and business services either themselves or purchase them partly or completely from service providers.

“The TE services reform will assign municipalities extensive responsibility for providing services to all customers in their area. For this reason, municipalities would also be in charge of procuring the services for this new duty. The municipal responsibility for organising services, the service choices and the funding model must form a coherent whole. Municipalities must be in a position to provide effective services,” said Minister of Employment Tuula Haatainen, who chairs the ministerial working group.

Ultimately, the central government bears the responsibility for the workforce. The central government would be responsible for managing the nationwide employment services, such as the information system, and assessing the efficiency of municipal employment services.

In addition to overall responsibility, the central government would have a national coordinating role in service packages that promote significant employment measures together with municipalities across the country. These include sudden structural changes and international recruitment.

Later this autumn, the ministerial working group will decide on the services that will be transferred to municipalities as well as on the incentive funding model.