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This article reports on the OECD Meeting of Employment and Labour Ministers, which took place in Paris in September 2003. The meeting was entitled 'Towards more and better jobs'. It notes that unemployment has been rising in almost all countries over the past two years and getting more people into the labour market, particularly those groups who are, at best, on the margins of the labour market, has become an important policy issue for the OECD. Such concepts as 'mutual obligation' were discussed, as well as whether mutual obligations could be applied equally to all groups on the margins of the labour market. Differing approaches of member countries were discussed with general agreement that incentives to facilitate access to the labour market such as investment in training and learning must be part of any strategy. A subject of debate was the question of who should provide employment services for job seekers. It was noted that skills become obsolete more quickly and new tasks must be learned and learned quickly, hence the importance of lifelong learning was stressed. As well as governments providing a regulatory framework to encourage a learning culture and monitor quality of training services, the private sector, in terms of private training providers and in company training and learning, has an increasingly important role to play. A suggested way forward is a co-financing system, with the costs of training investment being shared by all stakeholders.