Labour Market Analytics

The Labour Market Analytics unit is responsible for producing labour market data, analysis and research based on the department’s administrative data. As part of this remit, it delivers counterfactual impact evaluations under the government’s Pathways to Work (PtW) strategy. The unit also produces a quarterly labour market bulletin.

Pathways to Work 2015 committed to a rolling programme of process and programme evaluations of PtW reforms, as did Pathways to Work 2016-2020 and, most recently, Pathways to Work 2021-2025.

Nine evaluations have been completed to date:

• a counterfactual impact evaluation of the Back to Education Allowance, where people in receipt of qualifying payments can avail of second-or third-level education courses
• a counterfactual impact evaluation of the JobBridge internship programme
• a counterfactual impact evaluation of the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance, a subsidy for long-term unemployed people who become self-employed
• a counterfactual impact evaluation of the activation and case management processes, known as Intreo, first introduced in 2012
• a counterfactual impact evaluation of JobPath, a contracted service for long-term unemployed people introduced in 2015
• a counterfactual impact evaluation of JobsPlus, a subsidy paid to employers who hire long-term unemployed people
• a counterfactual impact evaluation of Community Employment, a public employment programme
• a counterfactual impact evaluation of Tús, a public employment programme introduced in 2011

The evaluations are listed in reverse order of publication below:

• (2013) Indecon's Evaluation of JobBridge
• (2015) Evaluation of the Back to Education Allowance. ESRI: Dublin
• (2016) JobBridge Evaluation Report. Indecon: Dublin
• DSP Research Briefing: Indecon JobBridge Evaluation
• (2017) Working paper: An evaluation of the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance. DEASP
• (2017) Exploring Drivers of Back to Education Allowance Employment Outcomes. BMG Research
• (2019)An Initial Evaluation of the effectiveness of Intreo activation reforms. ERSI:Dublin
• (2019) Evaluation of JobPath
• (2020) JobsPlus Evaluation
• (2024) Impact Evaluation of Ireland’s Active Labour Market Policies

This is part of an OECD-EC project on policy impact evaluation through the use of linked administrative and survey data.

For more information, please see the project home page here and the publication on the OECD page.

Other links:

• OECD Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs (ELS)
• The European Commission’s Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion
• The Competence Centre on Microeconomic Evaluation in the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Ongoing evaluations:

An evaluation of the Back to Work Family Dividend is ongoing and will be published in 2024.

The objective of this working paper is to highlight employment transitions (or movements) among former Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) recipients who have closed their claim and returned to work.

This analysis, which was conducted in November 2021 shows whether former PUP recipients returned to their former employer or changed employer (either within their former sector of employment or to a different sector).

The paper gives breakdowns and comparisons of those shown to have returned to work post-PUP and also considers their interaction with the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS).

This analysis, conducted in September 2021, examines everyone who received a PUP and later returned to work, indicating whether they:

• returned to their former employer, or
• changed employer (either within their former sector of employment or to a different sector of employment)

• March 2021 Quarterly Bulletin
• December 2020 Quarterly Bulletin
• August 2020 Quarterly Bulletin