From mid-2013 onwards, the specialisation of Pôle Emploi advisers in different forms of support has resulted in a two-fold differentiation in the size and composition of the portfolios of jobseekers for whom they are responsible.
Thus, the ‘enhanced support’ programme means that advisers are responsible for a smaller number of jobseekers, but those who are further removed from the labour market. Where jobseekers have only recently registered as unemployed, the combined effect of this dual change on job placement rates is negative (compared with advisers assigned to support a large number of jobseekers who are closer to the labour market). However, it is positive when jobseekers have been registered as unemployed for at least one year. It is not possible to distinguish between the ‘scale effect’ and the ‘composition effect’ in these results, the latter being driven in part by unobservable variables.
Advisers assigned to enhanced support are more often long-serving advisers at Pôle Emploi. However, there is no evidence to suggest that these advisers have a comparative advantage in this type of support, given that their placement rates are affected in the same way by the transition to enhanced support as those of less experienced Pôle Emploi advisers.
