There is no question that 1998 will be remembered at the ESS for a long time to come. The changes on the labour market continued, and the ESS was preparing for the changes to the Employment and Unemployment Insurance Act while at the same time investing a great deal of effort in rationalising its work, in achieving a more even distribution of the workload among its staff and, of course, in improving the working conditions for ESS staff and clients.

The ESS and its experts were intensively involved in the adoption of changes to the law. These now provide legal support to the professional tenets of work with unemployed people, scholarship recipients and other ESS partners. The introduction of these changes into daily practice has been an almost seamless process, which only confirms that the preparations made within the ESS were thorough and of high quality. The ESS prepared new methods of work, information material and computer applications on time, and also trained all ESS staff who directly or indirectly operate under the provisions of the law. The work is not yet complete, but the ESS is nevertheless satisfied with what has been achieved so far.

A number of new features have been introduced in the professional sphere; of these, changes in the role and status of public works programmes, programmes for attracting young people who have not completed their education back to school, and the founding of Slovenia's first Centre for Vocational Guidance and Information deserve mention. A significant improvement has been made in cooperation with employers as the most important partners of the ESS; after all, the only way to deal with the issue of long-term unemployment is through new job placements.

The conditions for work at the ESS remained much the same as in 1997; the adoption of the ESS business plan was one new feature here. In 1998 the ESS's future development strategy became clear in terms of professional work, internal set-up and technical support.