적극적 노동시장정책을 위한 미국 실업보험제도의 변화와 시사점

Active Labor Market Policies and Unemployment Insurance in the United StatesSoh-yeong Kim This article describes the characteristics of the Unemployment Insurance(hereinafter UI) in the United States by reviewing the active labor market context for UI policy. In 1935, an unemployment system was established in order to provide economic security for workers during periods of temporary unemployment. Over the years the UI system which relies on cooperative federal-state programs has changed in response to demands placed on the system by unpredictable economic events. The most effective way to provide income security to jobless persons is to help them find new jobs. By supporting a return to work, the UI system can provide income security to more people with lower costs per person. For several decades Congress took a piecemeal approach and adopted various programs to encourage job training and placement for the chronically unemployed, i.e., Welfare-to-Work Partnership, Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services, employment services in One-stop Career Center, etc. It has been suggested that the employment services be integrated with other services since job search assistance and access to labor market information is crucial in finding a job, which is the ultimate goal of the workforce system. Also worth emphasizing, employers should be given an incentive to post jobs with the public employment service at the same time they post jobs through private internet job search systems.