The Role and Activities of Employment Agencies

This study provides an overview of the importance and activities of employment agencies as well as their legal framework (WTO, ILO, EU) in the EU Member States and closely examines their role in selected countries, while focusing on temporary work agencies, a significantly growing market within the EU. Due to limited data, there is no clear-cut result on the agencies’ longer-term impact. However, the four identified market types (market driven, social dialogue based, legislator driven and emerging markets) are analysed through country cases regarding national regulations, the treatment of workers and everyday functioning of the agencies. It becomes evident that there is a wide diversity of the branch, which needs to be taken into account when reviewing EU Directive 2008/104/EC