BACKGROUND
The employment service is one of the most significant sectors of the public authorities of the country, because the functions it deals with are related to the labor force, without which it is impossible to imagine any society. Therefore, employment services existed and still exist in all social-political systems. In the modern sense, they emerged in Europe after the World War II. Back then, the International Labor Organization (ILO) was established in Switzerland in 1919.
In the broadest sense, the employment service in Macedonia emerged immediately after the liberation in 1945, but it was underdeveloped and a part of the municipal sectoral administration, due to which we can not speak of its profiling as a separate public service in that period. During that period there were several organizational forms (labor department, labor agency, labor force administration).
The formal institutionalization of the employment service was made on March 31, 1952 with the adoption of a Decree on the organization of the service for labor mediation. With this Decree, adopted by the Government of the SFRY, local and republican bureaus of labor mediation were defined as organs of the labor mediation service. The Republican Bureaus of labor mediation founded the Councils of Public Health and Social Affairs of the People's Republics, and they were managed by Management Boards, and directly governed by the heads of the Bureaus.
From December 1, 1960 the employment service continues operating as the Republican Employment Bureau of PRM, established by the Executive Council with a Decree dated October 29, 1960. During this period, economic and social reforms are implemented in the country and the political system, based on the constitutional changes in 1963, underwent significant changes, especially in view of the further socialization of the matters governed by the country and further establishment of the delegate system as principle. Due to these reasons, the organizational form of the employment service underwent changes and the Republican Employment Bureau of PRM is transformed in Republican Employment Union.
The Employment Union has the Parliament as its highest authority, which implemented the institute of social self-management in the area of employment. A general characteristic of this period is the abandoning of the extensive policy in employment and the introduction of active, intense policy in this sphere, where the organizations in the economy gain independence in terms of provision of personnel, the functions of the service receive treatment as activity of special social interest, as well as increase of the range of responsibilities, organization and staff. During this period, there was a more radical approach to the issue of scientific definition of the scope of work in employment in order to determine in more detail the role, function and tasks of the service. The principles of the Law on organization and financing of employment (1965) defined 9 functions of the employment service, namely: socio - economic, mediation, organizational - personnel, professional orientation, educational, material - legal protection of the unemployed, document, financial and administrative. These functions still represent the basis on which most of the work and competence of the employment service are realized.
In accordance with the general system changes in the society back then, based on the Constitution from 1974, Economic Communities of Interest (SIZ) for employment were established, at municipal, state and federal level, which based on the delegate principle, were generally aimed at further deetatization and socialization of the matters in the field of employment. Thus, based on the Law on self-governing communities of interest for employment and material security during temporary unemployment (Official Gazette of SRM no. 20/74), the Republican SIZ for Employment was founded by 42 founders, based on Agreement on self-government. It had capacity of legal person and was arranged on delegate principle of constitution of its bodies (Assembly, Executive Board and Control Commission). The Delegates to the Assembly delegated the assemblies to the municipal Communities of Employment.
With the Law Amending the Law on self-governing communities of interest for employment and material security during temporary unemployment (Official Gazette of SRM no. 9/78), the employment service is transformed to Republican Community for Employment. Subsequent changes in terms of the functioning of the employment service were made with the changes in the legislation (Official Gazette of SRM no. 32/87, 18/89, 36/89, 17/91 and Official Gazette of RM no. 36/91, 12/93 and 78/93).
The Law on Employment and Insurance in case of unemployment adopted in 1997 (Official Gazette of RM no. 37/97) renamed the employment service to Employment Office of the Republic of Macedonia, as a public service based in Skopje, and it represented single professional service with regional units- employment offices, established on the territory of one or more municipalities. This law stipulates that the Employment Office of the Republic of Macedonia is managed by a Management Board consisted of 9 members and is headed by a Director who is appointed and dismissed by the Government of Republic of Macedonia on the proposal of the Minister of Labor and Social Policy. The overall functioning of the Office is governed by the laws, the Statute and the acts on organization and systematization.
With the amendments to the Law from 2004 (Official Gazette of RM no. 37/04), the name of the Office is changed to Employment Service Agency of the Republic of Macedonia, and the employment bureaus are renamed to employment centers.