Navigating labor-market transitions: an eco-social policy toolbox for public employment services

Current societies are heavily reliant on employment as a cornerstone of prosperity, both in terms of individuals’ access to income and social security and to finance welfare states through tax revenues. At the same time, work is often linked to environmentally harmful activities and not necessarily oriented toward meeting human needs. Against this background, work emerges as a key lever for a social-ecological transformation, and public employment services (PES) as key actors in labor-market policy – an area that has largely ignored environmental objectives until now. This article contributes to the small but growing field of research on eco-social labor-market policies by developing a novel set of 15 measures for eco-social labor. These indicators are grouped into six key thematic clusters of action for PES: (1) information and consultancy; (2) eco-social retraining and qualification; (3) sustainable mobility; (4) working time distribution; (5) livelihood provisioning; and (6) ecological eligibility criteria for unemployment benefits. The proposed policy measures are PES-oriented and offer concrete options toward transformation. While the policy toolbox has been developed in the context of Austria, it can also be used as a framework for other countries.