Employment and policies in Europe: a regional perspective

The aim of the paper is to compare the employment performance at different levels of “regional” (dis)aggregation and to analyse the effectiveness of the European Employment Strategy in favouring net job creation and employment performance convergence. In the first part, the (quantitative) differences in “regional” labour market performances are highlighted and briefly discussed. In particular, using the main employment indicators, we compare the United States and the European Union, Mediterranean and non-Mediterranean EU countries, “old” and “new” EU members, the Italian macro-Regions, Regions, Provinces and, finally, some local labour systems. In the second part, the characteristics (method, instruments and final goals) and effectiveness of the European Employment Strategy (a complex “open method of co-ordination” of employment policies) are briefly analysed.