ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the plenty of reasons to believe that labour market policy strategies need to be re-evaluated in the light of the fact that the economy is controlled at a supra-national level in accordance with the universal criteria of the market. It presents the one particular measure and experience: the labour pools started in six North-Karelian communities with the central aim of developing ways of encouraging local employment. The chapter aims to explain ponder on the factors that affect the demand for labour and the potential that local initiatives have to foster employment and to support the unemployed. The chapter analyses the concept of labour pool and examines how it could contribute to creating an active labour market policy. The demand for labour can be influenced primarily by economic policy, reforms in welfare policy and an active labour market policy.
