This paper focuses upon the privatization of Britain’s employment
services. It explores the extent to which the private sector is involved in
the delivery of state-funded employment services, and the reasons why
its involvement is to be extended in the future. The paper examines the
catalyst – the Freud review of work-related social security policies – for
extending private sector involvement in employment services before
going on to critically engage with the privatization of such services. Here,
the focus is upon ways in which such developments commodify nonemployed
people by creating an economic value for them, and the amount
and nature of paid work that will be available through such services. The
paper argues that the privatization of employment services will be more
advantageous to the private sector than it will be to non-employed people
because it is essentially a conservative policy that will not address the barriers
that people face in securing paid employment.