On May 28th, 2024 Pathways to Work 2021-2025: Mid-Term Review and Second Annual Progress Report was published by the Labour Market Advisory Council (LMAC). In the Chairperson’s Introduction, John Martin, LMAC Chair notes that “As a result of the mid-term review, the Council recommends that the Minister consider revising some existing commitments, and adding some new ones, to ensure that the strategy reflects the actions required to respond to current labour market needs and in anticipation of the challenges ahead. The Council recognises that some of the revised and new commitments and targets are ambitious, but it believes that they are realistic.
The delivery of Pathways’ commitments and key performance indicators plays a central role in Ireland’s implementation of UN Sustainable Goal eight to ‘promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’ and Ireland’s contribution to achieving the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan headline target to have at least 78% of adults aged 20 to 64 in the European Union in employment by 2030.” (p3)
In Section 4, Conclusion and Council’s Views it states that “The Council also acknowledges that not everybody has benefitted from the strong labour market situation. There are people that remain unemployed in a time of ‘full employment’ according to the conventional definition in Ireland and face great difficulties accessing labour market opportunities and quality employment. Their challenges are often complex, including but not limited to, low levels of education, a lack of work experience, caring demands, health issues, addiction, as well as other social barriers that have not allowed them to participate in the work force to date. A whole-of-Government approach is warranted to address these challenges and the Council believes that the Public Employment Service can further improve and enhance its outreach and efforts to provide a suitable response to meet the needs of marginalised cohorts.” (p165)
On the same day the Government published Pathways to Work, 2021-2025 Updated Strategy (following the Mid-Term Review) - Commitments and key performance indicators to be delivered by end 2025 . The table below contains the new measures and Key Performance indicators listed in Table 3 Updated List of Key Performance Indicators on pages 28 to 32 of this report.
| New Measures | Key Performance Indicators | |
| Inputs | Deliver activities under the updated Employment and Youth Engagement Charter | 3. Target 300 employers to sign up to the Charter Commitments by December 2025. |
| Expand the Employability Scheme for People with Disabilities | 4. Employability will engage with 10,000 clients per annum. | |
| Outputs | Engagement with priority groups | 8. Engage with 10,000 customers per annum on Disability Allowance under the Early Engagement Process. 9. Engage with all young jobseekers (under 30 years) and make a quality offering of employment, education, or training within 4 months. 10. Engage with all Jobseeker’s Transition payment customers moving from One Parent Family Payment. 11. Increase the number of Travellers and Roma availing of the Work Placement Experience Programme (WPEP) in private sector employments to 1% of WPEP participants on the scheme, by Q1, 2026. |
| Upskilling and lifelong learning | 14. Continue to grow workforce upskilling enrolments through Skills to Advance to over 22,200 places by the end of 2024. 15. Continue to grow upskilling and reskilling opportunities for those who are unemployed through Skills to Compete to over 22,900 by the end of 2024. 16. Increase lifelong learning participation to 64.2% by 2030. | |
| Green skills | 17. Over 7,000 enrolments on Nearly Zero Energy Building/retrofitting courses during 2024. | |
| Outcomes | Improve outcomes for people most distant from the labour market | 23. New: Ensure that ‘in-employment supports’ are provided to 40% of Employability clients. 24. New: Increase employment rate for Travellers by 50%, from 18% (Census 2022) to 27% by Census 2027. 25. New: Increase employment rate for Traveller women by 50%, from 16% (Census 2022) to 24% by Census 2027. |
| Customer satisfaction | 26. For a minimum of 75% of jobseekers to indicate that they are fairly or very satisfied with their overall customer experience, in the annual customer satisfaction surveys. | |
| Quality employment outcomes | 27. To increase the mean number of insurable weeks of formerly long-term unemployed jobseekers to have found employment, from 36 weeks in a 52-week period to 38 weeks. | |
| Labour Market Tightness/ Efficiency | 28. For every job vacancy, to maintain a ratio of six or fewer unemployed people. To produce an analytical report for the Labour Market Advisory Council if this ratio is exceeded over two quarters. |