Labour market policy seeks, at base, to fulfil two aims, and these remain unchanged. One—and note that I say ‘one,’ not ‘first’—is to promote the efficiency with which labour markets function.

It does so on the empirically well-grounded premise that inefficient labour markets are a constraint on wellbeing and economic growth, and that well-designed labour market policies can improve both outcomes.

The other aim of labour market policy is the protection of those people who participate in labour markets, acknowledging their dual economic role as both factor of production, but also as the main consumer of that which is produced:  consumption through labour income is the major component of aggregate demand.

Protecting people at work or wanting to work thus makes purely economic sense beyond the ethical imperative to do so. This is thus a large role assigned to labour market policy – policy that lubricates economic growth.