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.

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