Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 February 2018
581. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection in view of the fact that it was reported that 6,111 persons secured full-time employment in the year July 2015 to June 2016 from the JobPath scheme, the length of time the employment lasted for the 6,111 persons, that is, three, six or nine months or one year. [5483/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraJobPath is an employment service designed to support people who are long term unemployed (over one year) to obtain and sustain employment.
The Department published an updated cohort report on the performance of the JobPath strand of the Department's activation services at the beginning of January 2018. The report can be accessed on the Department’s website at the following link.
http://www.welfare.ie/en/downloads/JobPath-Performance-Report2017.pdf
The report detailed employment outcomes on a quarterly cohort basis, i.e. customers referred in Quarter 3 and 4 in 2015 and those referred in Quarter 1 and 2 in 2016.
The data is encouraging as the total employment outcome at the time of publishing was 25%: 18% of Jobseekers who engaged with the service during this period obtained full time employment. In addition, a further 4% of clients entered part time employment and a further 3% became self-employed.
The number of clients, at the time of publishing, to remain in full time employment for 3 months was 4,619. In addition, the total number of clients to sustain 3 months' employment is broken down by quarterly referral cohort within the report. The number of clients to remain in full time employment for 6 months was 3,422. Again this total number is then broken down by quarterly referral cohort within the report.
The JobPath service was launched on a rolling basis with referral numbers increasing over time. The two latter cohorts (Q1 and Q2 2016) make up 80% of the total referrals (80% of the 39,603 jobseekers) between July 2015 and June 2016. Consequently not enough clients have completed their period of engagement with the service to produce robust data in terms of nine and twelve month outcomes. However, the department is undertaking an econometric review of this strand of its services with completion of the review scheduled for Q3 2018, following which more detailed statistics will be available.
The Deputy will be aware that jobseekers may be supported through the service for up to 30 months and as such these statistics are a snapshot at a point in time. The duration of the client journey necessitates the requirement of a cohort-based approach to reporting and the updating of outcome data over time: for example the performance of the latter two cohorts (Q1 and Q2 2016) are expected to improve over time as more jobseekers complete their full engagement period with the service.
In designing the JobPath service the department took steps to ensure the focus would be on sustained employment outcomes, rather than the traditional measurement of such contracts i.e. outcomes based on jobseekers being ‘placed into / starting’ employment. As a result the Department only makes payments for full time employment outcomes that last a minimum of 13 weeks. The department is therefore not reporting on or making payments for any job sustainment outcomes of less than 13 weeks e.g. full time employment of 12 weeks' duration - which will have been beneficial to the Jobseeker.
It should be noted, where a client starts a job but subsequently returns to the live register the client returns to their original individual personal advisor who will continue to work with them to support them in their efforts to obtain further employment.
Of the 39,603 jobseekers referred to the service during the period July 2015 and June 2016, 58% were over three years unemployed and a further 17% were over two years unemployed. These groups face significant barriers when seeking to enter or return to employment in the open labour market.
I trust that this information is of some assistance to the Deputy.
