Measuring Active Labour Market Polices

Active labour market polices have always been one of the most closely measured policy areas. This can be attributed, among other things, to the use of NPM-inspired governance instruments (e.g., performance measurement and outcome-based pay-for-performance schemes). The extensive use of measurements has in recent years been heavily criticized for bureaucratization and its focus on internal efficiency rather than external impact on societal and individual problems. Post-NPM reforms offer answers to these challenges. These reforms are however neither uniform nor have they replaced earlier governance paradigms. A major challenge is therefore how to make such a transition possible if legitimacy is predicated on performance measurements focused on efficiency and accountability. From what we have learned from the past 30 years of measuring in this field this will depend on how such approaches can be captured by the KPIs of performance measurement systems. Or maybe alternatively whether new measurements adapted to post-NPM logics can be developed.