Policymakers have a growing interest in the role played by employers in promoting labour market participation for jobseekers with support needs. This is reflected in the development of demand-led approaches which adopt employers’ hiring requirements as a starting point for labour market intervention.
OBJECTIVE:
The article examines the work of job agents, who promote the matching of jobseekers and employers in a Norwegian demand-led approach called Ripples in the Water (RiW). The aim is to understand job agents’ strategic and brokering work of employer engagement.
METHODS:
Explorative, qualitative study based on interviews and field notes from formal and informal meetings with job agents, employers and jobseekers in RiW.
RESULTS:
Job agents function as knowledge brokers who connect the discourses of welfare and market.
CONCLUSIONS:
RiW represents one possible approach to increasing employer engagement in vocational rehabilitation. Job agents in RiW build relations with employers by reframing vocational rehabilitation.
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