ABSTRACT
The supply-side emphasis of government labour market policies has led to a neglect of labour demand in policy debates with respect both to unemployment and inequalities in unemployment. This chapter addresses this issue at the microeconomic level by presenting findings from interviews with human resources/personnel managers of major employers in the West Belfast area. Employers were asked whether they could fulfil conditions such as having to hire a certain percentage of their workforce either from the local labour market and/or from the long-term unemployed, if these were introduced as a condition of grant-aid. Clearly, employer stereotypes of the unemployed, particularly the long-term unemployed, represent a significant barrier to bringing the unemployed into work, but there is an institutional framework of fair employment, industrial development and training policy within which employers act. The employer tries to gain as much information about the applicant as possible before deciding whether to the hire the person.
