I. Promotion of Smooth Adjustment to Structural Changes

In order to create new competitive jobs and to strengthen the adaptability of the German economy, in early 1996 the Federal Government adopted an Action Programme entitled Reforms for Investment and Jobs setting out the supply-policy strategy it is currently implementing and refining. The purpose of this strategy is

• to strengthen sustainably the confidence of consumers and investors through stability-oriented macroeconomic policies;
• to improve the performance and competitiveness of the German economy by reducing the excessive load of taxes and charges;
• to widen the scope for private initiative by reducing the influence of government and by increasing the flexibility of goods and labour markets.

The announced measures have generally been implemented by now and have resulted in a clear improvement of economic framework conditions in Germany. Special mention should be made of abolished taxes on net assets and on business capital,accelerated planning and licensing procedures, changes to the legislation on protection from redundancy and increased opportunities for temporary employment contracts, changes in sick pay provisions, continuing privatisation of Federal Government-owned assets and participations in business and liberalisation of the telecommunications markets.

The Employment Promotion Reform Act has strengthened decentralised labour-administration responsibilities, made it more difficult for people to reject jobs offered to them, facilitated reintegration especially of the long-term unemployed into to the first labour market and made it easier to adjust unemployment relief payments to differences in working hour systems, inter alia.

Important new measures and regulatory changes will still be implemented, mainly later this year and in the course of next year;

• In order to thoroughly improve employment and investment conditions in Germany, the Federal Government sticks to its aim to cut income and corporation tax rates considerably while broadening the tax assessment basis, to improve the tax structure by attributing greater weight to indirect taxation and to relieve tax payers on a noticeable net basis.
• Policy-makers, business and trade union leaders have reached agreement to the effect that non-wage labour costs will be lowered to under 40% of the gross income level before the year 2000 by reducing mandatory contributions to social insurance schemes.
• Within the framework of its venture capital initiative, the Federal Government is improving the possibilities especially of small and medium-sized companies and business start-ups to obtain venture capital.

II. Promotion of Employment of Young People who Shoulder Responsibility for the Future

Thorough vocational training is basic to preparing young people for holding their own on the labour market. In Germany, about 70% of young people receives initial vocational training through the dual system comprising on-the-job training and vocational-school instruction which the Federal Government will retain for being a valuable and effective concept, because;

• combining work with learning represents an especially effective approach to imparting the skills that are needed in vocational life;
• on-the-job training makes it much easier for young persons to obtain a foothold on the labour market and, thus, keeps juvenile unemployment within limits.

Against the background of continuing technological, economic and social change, it is necessary to currently modernise the dual vocational training system. The Federal Government has taken the necessary steps to this end by adopting a project on "Reform of Vocational Training - Responsive Structures and Modern Occupations". Important points of reference of this reform project are adaptable training regulations in a changing working world, currently updated occupational profiles including a speedy adaptation of existing ones to the labour market requirements of the future and improved framework conditions for vocational training as a result of deregulation.

Within the framework of their responsibilities, labour and management have developed a number of integrative mechanisms designed to make it easier for young persons to make a start on the labour market.

Provisions supporting vocational training of young people are included in the Employment Promotion Act. Special attention is paid to those young persons who have not been able to begin or to complete vocational training.

Reform of university education is expected to set additional stimuli to foster the education of young graduates. The aim is to force competition among German universities and to prepare them for the 21st century by stressing performance and shortening the length of university study.

III. Promotion of Human Resource Development to Empower Workers to Sustain Economic Activities

Human resources are developed by modern and future-oriented training within the education system and by ongoing life-long vocational training at work. The Federal Government is working to ensure, that the policy on further education remains committed to the principles of individual responsibility, self-organisation and decentralised guidance of the further education market and to the principle of subsidiarity. This means that companies and employees bear responsibility for adapting their qualifications to the requirements of structural and technological change,in the first place. Companies are called upon to pay increased attention to unskilled and underqualified labour within the framework of the further education programmes they offer. Labour-market policies in this field can only be subsidiary in nature in support of the unemployed, people threatened by unemployment and the unskilled.

IV. Realisation of Active Ageing

Due to demographic developments policy-makers, business and trade-union leaders must take measures necessary for allowing the wealth of elderly workers' experience and vocational know-how to be used for longer periods than is the case at present. Therefore Federal Government has;

• initiated important steps towards raising the retirement age limit
• widened the possibilities for a smooth transition to retirement
• improved employment opportunities for elderly workers
• supported the set-up of senior expert bureaux.

1. Promotion of Smooth Adjustment to Structural Changes

The general labour policy of Italy has been inspired in recent years by the practice of "social concertation", that is by large-scale agreements made between the Government, the employers associations and the trade unions. In this respect the main policy line has been to put into full operation the provisions of the "trilateral" agreement of 23 July 1993, regarding vocational training, human capital,research and development, and "regulated flexibility in employment relations". The new Pact for Employment (24 September 1996) moves further in this direction. The main labour policy initiatives of recent years have been in three areas:

• increasing labour market flexibility through the introduction of new regulations on atypical employment and hiring procedures;
• granting general reductions in payroll taxes, as well as cuts in wage costs and social insurance contributions for various regions and economic sectors;
• fostering integration or reintegration of disadvantaged groups (women, young people, workers on short-time compensation and on the mobility rolls, drug abusers, etc.) into working life.

More recently, in accordance with the agreements reached by the EU Member States, Italy has prepared a Multiannual Programme for Employment based on the following objectives:

• to increase the rate of employment, especially in southern Italy;
• to invest in human resources, current and future, and implement the principle of equal opportunities;
• to broaden the productive base and sustain its growth;
• to ensure the effective operation of the labour market, by encouraging flexibility;
• to offer a variety of services to workers and businesses information, individual guidance, training, etc;
• to guarantee, on certain conditions and through integrated management of incentives and social shock absorbers, financial protection for unemployed people actively seeking work.

Moreover, the Italian Government has made a number of achievements which may be summed up as following:

1. to promote the enlargement of the productive base and support new enterprise formation and employment in small firms , with incentives to small and tiny businesses that are formed or that increase their workforce, with a view to closer integration with large firms;
2. to reform the public employment service through decentralisation, liberalization and a lighter State presence, making the most of the role of private parties;
3. to revise, through "social concertation" both social shock absorbers and employment incentives to achieve greater certainly and less administrative discretionality;
4. to plan socially useful projects in conformity with the principle of mutual solidarity.
   In this regards the Government plans to promote the growth of the non-profit sector,which achieves solidarity in decentralised and generally efficient fashion and which can be expected to play a major role in providing services and creating jobs;
5. to devise, in agreement with the social partners, a set of measures for regulated flexibility on both the demand and supply sides of the labour market;
6. to draft a plan for part-time hiring of young people by Government departments;
7. to foster initial and continuing training programmes, both in and out of the school system, both in-service and for unemployed , to improve and update human capital;
8. to ease the tax and contribution burden on the cost of labour by shifting part of it (health service contributions, for instance) from payroll taxes to general taxation;
9. to promote and provide incentives for self-employment and enterprise creation by young people, with support to the law on youth entrepreneurship and loans for young people, including student loans as well as business start-up loans.

2. Promotion of Employment of Young People who Shoulder Responsibilities for the Future.

Recent legislation covering active labour policy has redefined income support provisions and, at the same time, continued to increase labour market flexibility by re-regulating and extending the range of programmes designed specifically for bringing young people into the job market.

The goal of expanding the employment base has been pursued not only via flexibility but also through incentives to business and to foster initiatives at the local level. The flexibility measures considered here include traineeship contracts and other special projects to promote employment (such as incentives to make part-time contracts in the Southern, Italy fiscal exemptions to set up new businesses, government-supported "work fellowships" to stimulate work experience of young people).

Of all active labour policies, training programmes are considered the most effective tool for improving the functioning of the labour market. In a highly fragmented market like the Italian, training must be directed specially to young people.Recent legislation has introduced provisions for training and guidance stages for young people within companies.

The purpose of training and guidance stages is to facilitate occupational choice by furthering young people's knowledge of the productive system. The formula, which calls for "practical training and experience", is designed to provide initial access to the world of work for young people who have completed their schooling. The programmes can be planned by universities, school districts, public schools, training and guidance centres, employment agencies and the local offices of the Ministry of Labour. They are carried out through conventions between the planners and the firms that host the young people for a specified period of time.

3. Promotion of Human Resource Development to Empower Workers to Sustain Economic Activities. Income support programmes.

Commonly known as "social shock absorbers", passive labour policies aim exclusively or predominantly to provide income support to individual workers who have lost or are losing their jobs.
Italy's procedures for managing redundancies are highly diversified in form and character. The Government is now working on a plan to reorder programmes in this area, precisely in order to eliminate these great disparities of treatment. The need for a univocal system of income protection is increasingly pressing because for one thing, the budget costs of some programmes (such as early retirement) are excessive, while the benefits of others (unemployment benefits) are utterly inadequate.

The main income support programmes are the following;

1. Short-time earning compensation (Casse Integrazione Guadagni, CIG) is the programme most commonly used by firms to cope with difficulties in an industry, an area or a market.
2. The mobility allowance (introduced by the low n.223/1991) constitutes together with short-time compensations one of Italy's most widely used social shock-absorbers. This programme is designed for workers who are temporary removed from production.
3. Solidarity contracts (Created by the low n. 863/1994), is a job-sharing programme designed to counter redundancies. The mechanism provides for a company agreement to reduce working hours (on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis) with a wage supplement to workers for the hours lost.
4. Regular unemployment benefits. Eligibility for these benefits is open to the involuntarily unemployed, whose employment relationships have been terminated or suspended.

4. Realization of Active Ageing

Population ageing will increase government spending, reduce revenues and increase government dissaving - and may also reduce national saving. Action is needed. Locking in an increasing proportion of national health to support increasing amounts of time in leisure near the end of life is simply bad social and economic policy.Failure to make needed changes, whatever the preferred path, will greatly restrict the freedom of coming generations to make their own decision on how to spend national resources.

Recently, the low No. 196/1997 has laid down new measures to promote the realization of active ageing, such as incentives for part-time employment contracts. It should be outlined also the important role of no-profit activities.

In both the health and social security sectors, there has been a strong tendency to develop additional voluntary forms of assistance.

In the field of pensions, Italy has moved toward a creation of private funds. Mutual fund management companies, like banks, securities firms and insurance companies will be allowed to stipulate agreements in order to manage pension fund assets.

Promotion of Smooth Adjustment to Structural Changes

In order to maintain economic vitality and quality jobs in the face of intensifying global competition and the trend toward an ageing society, the Government of Japan will continue to implement the "Action Plan for Economic Structural Reform" adopted on 16 May 1997. The Action Plan aims (i) to facilitate the creation of new businesses; (ii) to foster a business environment that is attractive to Japanese as well as foreign companies; and (iii) to prevent the increasing public burden from undermining economic growth. Furthermore, Japan plans to review this Action Plan by the end of 1997, incorporating, where possible, new policies and accelerating their implementation. The main points of the Action Plan include the following;

1. In order to establish an environment favourable to the creation of new industries, Japan will implement comprehensive policies, which include;
   • introduction of a law (in the next Diet Session) to enable venture investment partnerships to facilitate capital flows from foreign investors and pension funds to venture enterprises;
   • tax measures to promote stock options; promotion of internships to foster collaboration between industries and academics; and
   • introduction of a law (in the next Diet Session) to establish a technology transfer system for the rapid and smooth transfer of research results from university and national laboratories to the industrial sector.
2. In order to correct the high cost structure, thorough changes of the regulatory systems will be made in such sectors as logistics (e.g., truck transportation), energy (e.g., electricity and gas), information and telecommunications, medical care and welfare, standards and conformance, and finance.
3. In order to enhance the entrepreneurship of enterprises, to enable them to cope with the challenges before them and to maintain their vitality, optimal allocation of enterprises' resources should be reformed through the reform of corporate organisational systems. In particular, notification and reporting systems for mergers, stockholding, etc. will be reviewed, including the introduction or raising of a minimum threshold for notification and reporting. To this end, the Anti-Monopoly Law will be amended in the next Diet Session.
4. In order to ensure that individuals can meet diverse challenges facing them, working and employment systems will be reformed. This will be done through labour mobility, flexible and optional working system and autonomous and creative working styles. With respect to worker dispatching, the overall system will be reviewed including a list of occupations that fall outside the scope for which worker dispatching is permitted, and the length of dispatching period as well as measures for protect workers. (The worker dispatching law will be amended in the next Diet session.) Regarding fee-charging employment placement projects, examination will be started by March 1998 based on the ILO Convention No. 181 and other circumstances. With a view to further expanding the range of occupations covered and enlarging the terms of validity of the permission, necessary measures, including legal measures, will be taken as soon as possible.
5. In order to prevent the increasing public burden due to an ageing society from curbing economic vitality, efforts will be made to contain the public burden by improving the efficiency of the public sector, including social security costs such as pensions and medical care. This will enhance the compatibility between economic vitality and an ageing society.

Promotion of Employment of Young People Who Shoulder Responsibility for the Future

Today's youth will play an important role in ensuring the economic and social vitality in the future. Japan will promote comprehensive policies for youth employment in order to help the young develop clear occupational consciousness, and to choose and obtain an appropriate job.

1. Japan will improve the general information centre that continuously and systematically gathers job information, disseminates it to young people, and provides them with various work experiences. This will help the young to understand better the meaning and importance of work and to develop a clear occupational consciousness.
2. In order to promote the smooth transition from school to work, Japan will, through close collaboration between educational institutions and PES(Public Employment Services), improve the system for collecting and dispensing information on job experiences such as "internships", and encourage the introduction of these job experiences.
3. In order to help young people obtain work in the changing job environment, Japan will enhance the consultation function of PES. To this end, Japan will improve the provision of employment information in response to the information-oriented society to allow the young to make better use of the related information provided by PES. In particular, in order to help the young people choose a job and make a job strategy in line with their abilities, Japan will improve the overall system of job assistance.

Promotion of Human Resource Development to Empower Workers to Sustain Economic Activities

As structural changes advance, companies are required to promote high value-added industrial activities or develop new business areas. In this situation, the development of human resources is urgently required to upgrade the expertise and professional skills of workers. Japan will promote comprehensive measures for human resources development as follows;

1. Japan will improve the provision of information, counselling and subsidies for companies that provide their workers with vocational training in order to support human resource development on the initiative of the companies.
2. In order to promote workers' own initiatives in human resource development throughout their lives, Japan will establish a public assistance system offering financial support. Japan will also improve the provision of information and counselling for workers.
3. In order to encourage the development of human resources that sustain high value-added industrial activities, Japan will upgrade training courses implemented in public vocational training facilities.
4. In order to correctly evaluate vocational ability adapted to economic structural changes such as the increasing trend of base evaluation on workers' ability or the increase in labour mobility, Japan will consider restructuring its vocational ability evaluation systems.

Realisation of Active Ageing

In order to promote comprehensive policies for employment for older workers from the perspective of active ageing, Japan will implement the following measures:

1. Japan will promote measures to create a working society where continued employment is assured at least up to age 65. Japan will strive to gain public consensus to realise such a society and introduce and promote relevant systems in private companies.
2. In order to promote various forms of work, in accordance with the different health conditions and job preferences of older people, Japan will encourage reemployment of older workers with the assistance of public employment services. It will also develop and expand "silver human resource centres" (organisations which promote forms of remunerated social activities at the local level), and promote various types of employment according to the needs of older workers, such as dispatched (temporary) or part-time jobs.

3. Japan will promote human resource development according to the specific needs of older workers.

Title 1. Problems facing individuals and organisations undergoing changes.

In order to create favourable conditions for employment, to provide labour force for companies and to establish new industries Russia will continue reforming its economy with the aim of promoting economic and social progress and setting up a flexible national system of social support for the population.

Basic parameters of the social and economic policy of the Russian Federation have been set up by a Russian Government programme titled "Structural Changes and Economic Growth in 1997-2000". They are;

• to ensure investments growth needed for a dynamic economy development and re-structuring;
• to undertake radical changes needed for efficient operations of the economy and providing guarantees for ownership rights, fare competition and natural monopolies regulation;
• to re-organise companies to increase management efficiency under the market economy conditions;
• to stabilise the situation in the science and technology field through providing the necessary-support by the State with the view of ensuring their further development and coming to positions of leadership in a number of first priority spheres;
• to implement a smooth transition to a system of minimum subsistence levels and standard levels of service in education, health care and culture;
• to reform the social support system to make it more efficient and target oriented;
• to create favourable conditions for employment and provide labour force for organisations through economic stabilisation;
• to overcome shortage of vacancies through intensification of investments processes making full use of all the financial sources available, to develop new businesses, to take into consideration the economic decisions impact on the labour market;
• to stabilise living standards, to improve the social support system with the aim, inter alia, of cutting down the necessity to work for some groups of the population;
• to improve quality of the working environment through providing better working conditions, higher wages and salaries, introduction of flexible working hours, stabilisation of staff potential, effective usage of the vacancies available;
• to carry out a well-balanced migration policy aimed at a positive migration of labour, providing better housing conditions for the migrants and protection of the Russian labour market;
• to improve efficiency of the programmes and services offered by the State Employment Service and aimed at preventing unemployment and bringing the unemployed back to work.

Title 2. Promotion of Employment of Young People Who Shoulder Responsibility for the Future.

Young people employment is a key element of the Russian social policy. Creating conditions for employment of the young just entering the labour market and shortening the period of job search for the rest shall become a first priority issue. Special attention shall be paid to job placement of the orphans.

The following measures shall be undertaken for this purpose;

• to extend programmes of placing young people as apprentices with employers to obtain working skills and experience;
• to develop and implement measures aimed at motivating employers to offer jobs for secondary and technical schools leavers;
• to create temporary jobs for teenagers to provide them with a better access to work and to ease social tensions.

Title 3. Promotion of Human Resources Development to Empower Workers to Sustain Economic Growth.

Measures shall be taken to adjust wages payment procedure to ensure a well-balanced combination of interests of workers, employers and the State;

• to develop a system of continuous learning as the most progressive means of keeping up labour quality;
• to increase quality and competitiveness of labour;
• to improve vocational training and on-the-job training systems;
• to enhance the state influence on labour structure and quality;
• to set up a flexible labour market.

Summary

1. This paper summarises the UK's Employment Action Plan in the context of the Government's "Getting Europe Back to Work" initiative and the Amsterdam remit to exchange best practice on employment policies.

The Plan

2. This sets out the policies the UK Government sees as necessary to tackle unemployment and raise employment domestically.

3. It also considers which employment policies are working well in the UK which need strengthening to work better, and which policies are not working well and need changing.

4. The Government is clear that we need to set out a new agenda for employability, growth, job creating flexibility and inclusion. Employability means the development of skills and adaptable workforces in which all of those capable of work are encouraged to develop the skills, knowledge, technology and adaptability to enable them to enter and remain in employment throughout their working lives. We have put employability at the top of our agenda because employability is the key to a cohesive society which offers opportunity to all its citizens. We must ensure:

• that economic change and the pursuit of macro-economic policies are consistent with providing the jobs people need so that everyone can share in the rewards of a more dynamic and efficient economy.
• the right balance between economic efficiency and social inclusion if we are to get people back to work. We will not succeed in our task if we try to improve one without the other.

The Challenge

5. We all need to focus our efforts in 5 broad areas:

Promoting economic growth and stability

The UK Government has introduced new monetary policy arrangements designed to deliver permanently low inflation; and developed a new fiscal framework and introduced a deficit reduction plan to maintain sound public finances.

Investing in human capital

The Government plans to raise participation rates in post-compulsory education; reduce the numbers leaving school without basic qualifications; build on the Investors in People standard; and develop Individual Learning Accounts and a new University for Industry.

Helping people from welfare to work

The UK Government will introduce a major programme of employment measures designed to integrate the young and long-term unemployed, and other groups outside the labour market, back into employment. It will also mount an comprehensive review of the tax and benefit system and continue to bear down on non-wage labour costs.

Improving the workings of markets

The UK Government will introduce legislation toughen competition policy; seek to improve the quality of domestic regulation; continue to promote policies which facilitate mobility in the labour market; continue to support SMEs in all areas of policy.

Through these and other actions, creating a fair and inclusive society

The UK Government will promote innovative approaches across Government to tackle exclusion, and ensure better inter-agency/department co-ordination.

Success will take time

We will not reduce unemployment and raise employment overnight. We need to change policies now to achieve lasting success in the medium term. We will need to judge the success of our policies in 5-10 years, taking account of the effect of business cycle.

We must measure what we achieve

We need to be able to measure how our policies are working. Clearly we must monitor the overall levels of unemployment but we should also monitor:

• the ratio of the working population to the total population,
• the level of long-term unemployment,
• the rate of youth unemployment

Conclusion

We will not reduce unemployment and increase employment rates marginally overnight. But this plan sets concrete actions the UK Government is taking to tackle unemployment, to help people to become more employable and help those who have in the past been too easily excluded from the labour market. As the plan shows, it is vital to take action across a wide area of policy.

If we are to tackle unemployment we need to work together to compare our policies and see which work best in helping more people into work. Whilst employment policies are clearly for each country to determine based on their own circumstances and particular problems, there is much we can learn from each other.

This action plan is a new step to help promote the effective exchange of experience between countries.

The United States Government Appreciates the invitation of the Government of Japan to discuss, as an Annex to Japan's Conclusions about the Kobe Jobs Conference, U.S. policy initiatives that are relevant to the themes of the Conference. It is the view of the United States Government that the Kobe Conference has been a useful forum for the Summit of the Eight Countries to exchange information on the themes considered, and that it is now up to each country to put that information to use in a manner that best serves its unique domestic circumstances.

The United States Government values the insights offered by its Summit colleagues, and in the spirit of cooperation that supports this type of exchange, makes available the following description of U.S. policy. Those wishing more information are welcome to explore the material that can be accessed through White House (http//www.whitehouse.gov) or U.S. Department of Labor (https://www.dol.gov) links on the World Wide Web.

1. Promotion of Smooth Adjustment to Structural Change.

Policy Focus

• In the last five years, the United States had adopted a three-part economic strategy to help the American economy prepare for the 21st century.
• The first component of this strategy is deficit reduction. Eliminating the American budget deficit helps take the United States Government out of the competition for scarce investment funds. With this reduced demand, interest rates have fallen dramatically, helping the private sector make long-term investments that take advantage of the opportunities created by a changing world.
• This economic strategy is also based on the principle of leaving no one behind. The second component, therefore, is investments in education and training. The academic evidence clearly shows that increased education and training pays high returns; each additional year an individual invests in schooling yields a subsequent increase in wages of between 6 and 12 percent per year.
• The final component of this economic strategy has been free and fair trade. In order to ensure that American workers compete on a fair playing field, the United States Government has worked vigorously to tear down barriers to American goods abroad.

Examples of On-Going Policies

• Restoring Fiscal Responsibility. Since 1992, the American budget deficit has been reduced by 92 percent - from $2190 billion to $23 billion this year. As a share of GDP, the Federal budget deficit has been reduced from 4.7 percent to 0.3 percent of GDP -- its lowest level in nearly three decades. In August, President Clinton signed a bipartisan Balanced Budget Agreement that will eliminated the deficit by 2002 and provide about $900 billion in net savings over the next 10 years.
• Investing in Education and Training. This year, the United States Government funded the largest increase in educational investments in a generation, including the biggest increase in 50 years in aid to students wanting to attend college.
  • The America Reads Challenge. The United States Government has provided nearly $300 million in new funding for a comprehensive strategy for involving teachers, families and communities in ensuring that all children learn to read well and independently by the end of third grade. These resources will be used to build on current national service and college work-study tutoring efforts ( more that 800 colleges have already committed to use Federal work-study slots for reading tutors ).
  • Brings Technology to the Classroom. The United States Government has doubled the funding for two education technology programs, started from scratch three years ago, to $531 million. The Technology Literacy Challenge Fund helps States, communities, and schools acquire hardware, software, and connectivity linkages; provide professional development in the integration of technology into opportunities for all students. The Technology Innovation Challenge Grants support a wide range of innovative strategies for improving teaching and learning and increasing student access to technology.
  • Expands Head Start Toward 1 Million Children. This year, the United States Government will provide nearly $4.4 billion for Head Start, keeping on track to meet the President Clinton'g goal of saving one million children. With this $374 million increase, Head Start funding will have increased 57% since 1993. The program will serve an estimated 836,000 children in 1998.
  • Increases Pell Grant Award to $3,000 Maximum. The United States Government increased the maximum Pell Grant for low income college students to $3,000 --the largest increase in two decades. Approximately 3.7 million low-income college students will receive this year's $300 increase, and an additional 220,000 low-and moderate-income families that were not previously eligible will receive Pell Grants.
  • Tax Incentives to Help Americans Go to College. The United States Government has put in place a series of tax incentives to help Americans go to college. These incentives include a tax credit to help make the 13th and 14th grades as universal as a high school diploma is today. Students will receive a tax credit of 100% on the first $1,000 of tuition and fees and 50% on the second $1,000. The incentives also include a 20% credit, which will be applied to the first $5,000 of qualified education expenses through 2002, and to the first $10,000 thereafter.
• Opening Markets and expanding Trades. Over one-third of the growth in the U.S. economy since 1993 has come from exports of U.S. goods and services. The United States Government has increased its focus on international trade by putting into place a series of export promotion and financing programs, including the opening of 100 export assistance centers across the United States to serve the needs of U.S. businesses, Large and small; a Trade Advocacy Center; and a trade compliance Center to ensure the enforcement of the hundreds of trade agreements signed by the United States and its trading partners.

II. Employment of Young People

Policy Focus

• The traditional - and still very important - focus of U.S. youth employment policies has been on "at-risk" youth who are likely to be affected negatively throughout their working lives by the problems they face at the very beginning.
• More recent U.S. policy seeks to smooth the transition from school to work.

Example of On-Going Policies

• Job Corps is a public-private partnership targeting at-risk youth. Private industry operates almost 80% of the Job Corps centers under contracts with the U.S. Department of Labor. Job Corps provides a full-time, year-round residential program that offers a comprehensive array of training, education and supportive services, including occupational explanation; would of work and social skills training; and competence-based vocational and basic education. Evaluation studies indicates that Job Corps returns $1,46 to society for every dollar invested in it.
• Because of the Out-of-School Youth Opportunities Act, the Federal Government, through the U.S. Department of Labor, provides grants to assist high-poverty areas - "Empowerment Zones" or "Enterprise Communities" - in the provision of comprehensive services aimed at raising employment rates of out-of-school youth aged 16-24. The Opportunity Areas for Out-of-School Youth project grants combine Federal, State, and local community resources with strong private-sector involvement to create a comprehensive approach to job training, education and counseling. In 1996 and 1997, $8.9 million and $6.7 million respectively was provided to fund a number of pilot projects. On November 13, 1997, the President signed into law a major expansion of these activities. As a result, the Administration will work with the Congress to ensure enactment of training reform legislation by July 1, 1998, to use the $250 million provided as and advance appropriation in fiscal year 1999 for targeted projects to improve employment among out-of-school youth in high-poverty areas.
• The JTPA Summer Youth Employment program offers economically disadvantaged young people jobs and training during the summer. This includes basic and remedial education, work-experience programs, and support services such as transportation. Academic enrichment is also a major part of the program and may include basic and remedial education.
• The School to Work Opportunities Act was enacted in May 1994. Administered by the National School-to-Work Office under the joint direction of the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education, the Act encourages educational and career opportunities for all students by creating a framework for business and educational partnerships at the state and local levels. This initiative provides venture capital for states and local partnerships to design systems that help young people make the transition from school to careers and lifelong learning. It puts in lace the infrastructure for a national system that is based on existing models and efforts. All 50 state, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia have received development grants to produce comprehensive plans for school-to-work. At the level of the Federal Government, a comprehensive evaluation and information-sharing system has been put in place to provide feed-back to the process of implementing the Act.

III. Human Resource Development

Policy Focus

The Federal Government seeks to compete efforts of state and local governments and the private sector in responding to new labor market needs. The present Administration's education and training policies are predicated on three principles:

• They encourage students and schools to embrace change by developing the skills demanded by the new labor market.
• They create opportunity by targeting resources tot the disadvantaged, providing greater opportunity to participate fruitfully in that market.
• They promote personal responsibility, by stressing to young people and workers that they are responsible foe their own educational choices.

Examples of On-Going Policies

• On their own initiative, workers may access vocational training through:
  • a system of post-secondary occupational training programs in community colleges that varies by state and locality and is usually heavily subsidized by the state and local area; and
  • applying for financing for vocational training through Federal Student Aid Pell grants that are available for longer te4rm (at least 5 courses ) and also as loans for short-term certificate programs.
• For those not employed, JTPA programs provide training for the economically disadvantaged that is generally short term.
• The "Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997," together with the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, implements the bipartisan budget agreement. This historic agreement supports a "middle-class bill of rights," which, among other accomplishments, puts in place policies crucial to the further development of our human resources including:
  • the key aspects of the President's proposals for a $,500 HOPE Scholarship to make two years of collogue universally available and a twenty percent tuition credit to make the third and fourth year of college more affordable and to promote lifelong learning;
  • tax incentives for public school repair, renovation, and educational enhancement in poor neighborhoods through Education Zone Academy Bonds;
  • important student-loan forgiveness exemptions;
  • tax incentives to help public elementary and secondary school obtain up-to-date computer technology;
  • increased availability of tax-exempt financing for new capital expenditures by private colleges and universities;
  • a special tax-favored saving vehicle to help families save for higher education; and,
  • a 3-year extension of the exclusion of employer-provided educational assistance from taxable income.

IV. Active Aging

Policy Focus

The Older Americans Act, enacted in 1965, provides the framework for addressing the needs of the nation's senior population. The essential mission of the OAA is to foster maximum independence among seniors by providing a wide array of social and community services to older persons in greatest social and economic need. In this and other statues are found a range of Federal policies and programs that contribute to continued labor force participation among seniors and other aspects of Active Aging.

Examples of On-Going Policies

• The Older Americans Act authorizes a wide array of service program through a nationwide network of 57 State agencies on aging and 660 Area Agencies on Aging.

  -- The Act establishes a Federal Administration on Aging (AoA9 to administer most OAA programs and to act as the chief federal agency advocate for older persons. Funds for supportive, nutrition and home care services are distributed to States. The Department of Labor administers a Community Services Employment Program to subsidize part-time community service jobs for unemployed, low-income persons aged 55 and over.

• The National Institute on Aging conducts and sponsors research into the biological, social, behavioral and epidemiological aspects of aging, with the goal of minimizing the physical, psychological and social problems faced by many seniors.

  -- In addition to conducting basic behavioral and biomedical research, NIA supports a variety of longitudinal surveys such a the Health and Retirement Survey,

A co-ordinated strategy for boosting job creation and combating unemployment in Europe

The inclusion in the Treaty of Amsterdam of a new title on employment has paved the way for a decisive strengthening of policy co-ordination within the EU. The first step in launching a more closely knit European strategy for employment has been given by the Extraordinary European Council meeting on employment in Luxembourg,on 21 November. In agreeing the 1998 Employment Guidelines, the European Council adopted common strategic objectives covering the principal aspects of policy for creating jobs and combating unemployment, and a method for following up implementation and progress by all Member States respecting the principle of subsidiarity and the fact of that the primary responsibilities of employment policy remains with the Member States.

This approach is complementary to the continuation and development of a co-ordinated macroeconomic policy, underpinned by an efficient internal market, which will lay the foundations for sustainable growth, new dynamism and a climate of confidence conducive to boosting employment.

The European co-ordinated strategy for employment is based on four pillars;

1. To improve the employability of the work force, by developing preventive and employability-oriented measures targeted to the most vulnerable groups among the unemployed, switching from passive income support to active measures, encouraging social partners to agree on extended possibilities for training and work experience, and easing the transition from school to work in particular for the early school-leavers and young people with poor qualification levels.
2. To develop entrepreneurship, by reducing and simplifying the administrative burdens on SMEs, especially when hiring additional workers, encouraging the development of self-employment, exploiting new opportunities for job creation, particularly in the social economy and in new technologies, and making the taxation system more employment-friendly.
3. To encourage adaptability in business and their employees, by modernising work organisation, through flexible working arrangements under various forms, negotiated by the social partners at the appropriate levels, and the introduction of more adaptable types of contract, and supporting adaptability in enterprises through enhanced investment in human resources.
4. To strengthen the policies for equal opportunities, by tackling the gender gap in terms of employment rates and occupational structure, reconciling work and family life, through better quality child care facilities and more extended use of parental leave and career breaks, and facilitating the return of women, and men,to work.

In translating there common objectives into practice, Member States, while adopting different solutions and timetables in line with the particular situation of each,will endeavour to reach concrete results, in particular in the following areas and normally within the overall time span of 5 years:

• Every unemployed young person should be offered a new start before reaching six months of unemployment, in the form of training, retraining, work practice, a job or other employability measure;
• Unemployed adults should also be offered a fresh start before reaching twelve months of unemployment by one of the aforementioned means, or more generally,by accompanying individual vocational guidance.
• The numbers of unemployed who are offered training or any similar measure should be gradually increased so as to achieve the average of the three most successful member States, and at least 20%.
• The number of young people who drop out of the school system early should be reduced substantially.
• Each Member State will set a target, if necessary and taking account of its present level, for gradually reducing the overall tax burden and, where appropriate, a target for gradually reducing the fiscal pressure on labour and non-wage labour costs, in particular relatively unskilled and low-paid labour.

The achievement of these policy objectives will be monitored jointly by the Council and the Commission in accordance with the multilateral surveillance method that has been used so successfully in promoting nominal economic convergence under the Maastricht criteria.

The Employment Guidelines will be incorporated in national Employment action plans drawn up by the Member States in line with individual situations, and subsequently translated into national measures.

The multilateral monitoring procedure, involving an annual examination of Member States' employment policies, revised guidelines in the light of the results achieved, and possibly individual recommendations to Member States, will be carried out in line with the new provisions on employment of the Treaty of Amsterdam.

The social partners will be closely involved in the implementation of the guidelines in accordance with their roles in the Member States.