Background The role and responsibility of municipalities in meeting the service needs of jobseekers and employers has grown in recent years and will continue to grow as a result of various legal and organisational changes. At the national level, the amendments concern, for example, the Act on Public Employment and Business Services, the Labour Market Support Reform of the Unemployment Security Act, the legal status of labour force service centres and the development of labour-life participation. The services to promote employment under the responsibility of municipalities are strongly linked to social and health services and therefore the future reform of the social and healthcare service structure will have a significant impact on the operating environment of municipal employment services. The Oulu region has also been an area of strong structural change in the ICT sector in recent years. The ongoing restructuring will contribute to increasing the pressure on the development of employment services in the municipalities of the Oulu region.The main objective of the project is to develop new forms of service for job-seekers and employers’ customers. By developing cooperation between the employment services of the municipalities of the Oulu region (Hailuoto, Ii, Kempele, Liminka, Lumijoki, Muhos, Oulu, Tyrnävä), the service needs of these customer groups can be met more comprehensively, taking into account new legal obligations and restructuring. The project also develops multi-channel cooperation with the region’s TE-services, business operators, third sector operators and training organisations. The aim of the project is to reduce unemployment in the municipalities of the Oulu region, to cut the growth in long-term unemployment, to reduce the negative effects of structural change and to improve the services available for the recruitment of labour.The project measuresThe project will be implemented through two main themes: 1) Development of services for jobseekers in municipalities and business cooperation 2) Development of cooperation between the employment services of municipalities The project’s main themes include measures the need for which has emerged from the practices of existing employment services. In order to better meet the service needs of the region’s job-seekers and employers’ customers, the project will create new services and approaches to employment promotion measures which are currently flawed and do not meet the requirements of new legislative and restructuring changes. The project aims to cover the so-called gaps/joint phases in employment-enhancing services and to anchor them in the permanent functioning of employment services. All the development of services is carried out in close multi-channel cooperation with the Northern Ostrobothnia TE Office and other employment actors in the region. The main themes of the project are: • Finding, disseminating and embedding common practices of employment services provided by municipalities, and TE Office cooperation • Enhancing business cooperation with industry and business advisory organisations in connection with the employment creation of municipalities • Further development of employment information systems for employment and the development of new online forms of employment related to employment • Enhancing communication about municipal employment measures for jobseekers and employers’ clients • Improving cooperation between municipalities and improving labour market opportunities in accordance with employment and labour market integration. Development of labour market opportunities in accordance with the employment opportunities of municipalities; Active labour market policies can be more effectively targeted at those in weak labour market situations and better access to employment. It is possible to respond to the protracted unemployment of a job seeker in a timely manner and thus to prevent long-term unemployment. In addition to those in a weak position on the labour market, special attention will be paid to those who have become unemployed as a result of the restructuring or are threatened with unemployment.The employment-promoting services offered to employers in the Oulu region will become more uniform and will facilitate the recruitment of labour and employment from the employer’s point of view. In promoting employment, the new legal obligations already under the responsibility and responsibility of municipalities and the restructuring can be responded to in a proactive, intensified and cost-effective manner. The organisational structure of the employment services of the municipalities in the region supports harmonised services. Cooperation and division of labour between the TE Office in North Ostrobothnia and the municipalities in the region are effective. Employment in the third sector and the intermediate labour market