TY - JOUR A1 - Sowa, Frank A1 - Reims, Nancy A1 - Theuer, Stefan T1 - Employer orientation in the German public employment service JF - Critical Social Policy N2 - Through the introduction of welfare states and social policy, owners of labour power acquired alternatives to the permanent sale of their labour. Entitlements to social security created the conditions for a strategic temporary withholding of labour. Based on qualitative data, this article presents empirical evidence of trends towards recommodification in Germany, i.e. a reduction in the possibilities for decommodification, as a result of a new employer orientation in the public employment service (PES). The findings highlight an increased employer orientation as well as a differentiation and specialisation in placement work leading to a shift in the placement rationale encountered in the local branches of the German PES. A pure market orientation is seen to increasingly replace the social policy mandate of the PES. Strengthening employer-oriented placement services implies, on the one hand, a professionalisation of services and, on the other, a further recommodification of labour. KW - Hartz reforms, job placement, owners of labour power, recommodification Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018315601040 SN - 0261-0183 VL - 35 IS - 4 SP - 492 EP - 511 PB - SAGE Publications ER -