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Since 1982, the decentralization of vocational training policies from the central state to regions is in progress in France. This process is accompanied by deep changes in the ways knowledge concerning the links between employment and training is first produced and then mobilized in the regulation of policy making. These changes are here analyzed thanks to a sociological and historical approach based on the comparison between two regions (PACA and RA). This comparison leads us to point out a profound change in the activities of the two observatories for employment and training we studied. They have evolved from the model of the descriptive statistical report bringing together pieces of information (concerning an economic sector, a professional group or a territory) drawn from varied sources with little coordination, to the model of the diagnosis bringing out strategic issues and leading to public-policy recommendations.