Purpose – The paper aims to show that active labour market policies in Scotland over a nine-year period have failed to meet key policy objectives. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses the UK national online manpower information system (NOMIS) to conduct a detailed statistical...

This paper tests the appropriateness of government employment policies in targeting specific groups of unemployed job seekers in the UK. A sample of 169 job seekers is divided into those who were successful and unsuccessful in finding employment and the attributes of each group is analysed. A...

Purpose – The paper aims to show that active labour market policies in Scotland over a nine‐year period have failed to meet key policy objectives. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses the UK national online manpower information system (NOMIS) to conduct a detailed statistical...