Aktivierende Arbeitsmarktpolitik im internationalen Vergleich
"Aktivierung" als zentrales Prinzip der Leistungsgewährung für Langzeitarbeitslose bzw. erwerbsfähige Sozialhilfeempfänger wurde in Deutschland mit der sogenannten "Hartz IV-Reform" eingeführt. Dänemark, Schweden, die Niederlande und Großbritannien haben diesen Schritt bereits früher vollzogen. Dieses Themendossier bietet Literatur zur Ausgestaltung dieser Programme, zu den Zugängen und ihren Effekten auf die Erwerbsintegration und den Abgang aus dem Leistungsbezug.
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Literaturhinweis
Iterations of work inclusion beyond the standard service: Personalized welfare services in the era of activation and innovation (2025)
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Lundberg, Kjetil G., Suzan M. Skjold, Arnhild Melve & Astrid O. Sundsbø (2025): Iterations of work inclusion beyond the standard service. Personalized welfare services in the era of activation and innovation. In: Journal of Comparative Social Work, Jg. 19, H. 2, S. 63-88. DOI:10.31265/jcsw.v19i2.663
Abstract
"Employment services are repeatedly criticised for building barriers to service user participation and decent employment due to combinations of conditionality, bureaucratic logics, high caseloads and scarce resources. However, a range of newer service approaches recognise some of these shortcomings, and aim for personalization, service coordination, and/or increased connection to employers. In this article, we compare four programmes and their key worker roles, implemented in Norwegian postreform welfare and employment services (NAV) in the 2010s, as iterations of work inclusion beyond the standard follow-up service. These approaches are sensitive to gaps in the current service system, and they invest in the relationship between the professional worker and the service user, working both within and beyond social work approaches. Situated in the broader research literature on activation, personalisation and street-level organizations, we provide an analysis of how these approaches go beyond “business as usual” through strengthened key worker roles. We argue that the relational work approach adopted in these measures has the potential to foster the participation of service users, and to smoothen and sometimes tone down the conditional aspects of services, but that different organisational demands and accountability mechanisms produce a different space of action for key workers and users to shape the path towards labour and social inclusion." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Two faces of activation attitudes. Explaining citizens' diverging views on demanding versus enabling activation policies (2025)
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Meuleman, Bart, Arno Van Hootegem, Federica Rossetti & Koen Abts (2025): Two faces of activation attitudes. Explaining citizens' diverging views on demanding versus enabling activation policies. In: Social Policy and Administration, Jg. 59, H. 1, S. 174-191. DOI:10.1111/spol.13055
Abstract
"This study examines public attitudes towards two types of ALMPs: enabling activation, which prioritises training, skill formation, and human capital improvement; and demanding activation, which involves leading people towards employment through sanctions and benefit cuts. While previous research has predominantly focused on demanding activation, this study is the first to compare public support for the two distinct faces of activation. Analyzing data from the 2020 Belgian National Elections Study, we examine the role of self-interest, political ideology, social justice preferences, and stereotypical images towards the unemployed in explaining both types of activation attitudes. We find that attitudes towards enabling and demanding activation policies are clearly distinct in their measurement and driving forces. While the enabling type appeals especially to the principle of equality and positive attitudes towards the unemployed, support for demanding ALMPs is based on the principle of equity and stereotypical views about the jobless." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Comparative assessment of activation requirements for unemployment and minimum income benefit recipients (2025)
Mroczka, Joanna; Chen, Eddie; Pacifico, Daniele;Zitatform
Mroczka, Joanna, Daniele Pacifico & Eddie Chen (2025): Comparative assessment of activation requirements for unemployment and minimum income benefit recipients. (OECD social, employment and migration working papers 329), Paris, 68 S. DOI:10.1787/86ec18af-en
Abstract
"This paper updates previous OECD work on the strictness of activation requirements for benefit recipients, a topic central to the mutual obligations framework that underpins modern social safety nets. It covers multiple tiers of income support for jobseekers, including unemployment insurance, unemployment assistance, and minimum income benefits where relevant. By incorporating new data for 2024, it presents detailed information on jobsearch reporting procedures, monitoring mechanisms, definitions of suitable work, and sanction rules across OECD and EU countries. The paper also updates the OECD indicator of strictness of activation requirements. This composite indicator summarises complex national rules into a single, standardised measure that enables consistent monitoring and benchmarking across countries. Together with related OECD databases on benefit levels, work incentives for benefit recipients, and spending on active labour market policies, the updated database and strictness indicator support in-depth, evidence-based assessments of recent changes in income support and activation policies." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
What the street level can teach us about the social investment state – Insights from encounters between caseworkers and vulnerable unemployed clients in Denmark (2025)
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Nielsen, Mathias Herup (2025): What the street level can teach us about the social investment state – Insights from encounters between caseworkers and vulnerable unemployed clients in Denmark. In: Acta sociologica, Jg. 68, H. 4, S. 542-553. DOI:10.1177/00016993251349015
Abstract
"This article offers a street-level perspective to the ongoing scholarly discussions over the social investment state. Hitherto, the social investment state literature has been dominated by macro-level studies, while evidence from street-level caseworker–client encounters is very rare. As one of few to provide such evidence, this article analyses how frontline public officials adapt to social investment thinking as they process the cases of some of the most vulnerable people in the Danish society: hard-to-employ unemployed persons in job centres. Based on focus group discussions with 78 public officials of Danish job centers, this article examines what challenges street-level workers face in practice as they are expected to conduct their work in accordance with social investment thinking. It concludes (a) that adding a street-level component to the social investment literature is needed, because it emphasizes the importance of studying ‘how’ social investment policies are delivered; (b) that caseworkers under the canopy of social investment logics face a distinct set of challenges; and (c) that a street-level perspective can shed new light on some of the main assumptions of the social investment literature." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
"I feel good here": A qualitative study on subsidised employment in a Swedish municipal labour market programme (2025)
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Parsland, Ellen & Gabriella Scaramuzzino (2025): "I feel good here". A qualitative study on subsidised employment in a Swedish municipal labour market programme. In: Journal of Comparative Social Work, Jg. 19, H. 2, S. 38-62. DOI:10.31265/jcsw.v19i2.657
Abstract
"The aim of this article is to understand how a group of subsidized employees constructed a collective identity and symbolic community, and the role the municipal labor market programme played in that process. Further, it explores whether and how a shared collective identity and symbolic community may provide an explanation for how the ‘successful intervention/lock-in effect paradox’ occurs when using subsidized employment as an activation intervention. The article is based on a qualitative interview study with eight social workers and 11 subsidized employees from a Swedish municipal labour market program that offered subsidised employment as its main intervention. The interviews were analysed using the concepts of social identity and symbolic community. The article shows that subsidized employment plays a crucial role in subsidised employees constructing their identity as ‘persons with a job’, as distinct from the activation interventions usually associated with social assistance. The labor market programme serves as a transformative space where receiving a salary becomes a symbol of distinction, marking a significant departure from past experiences of receiving social assistance. The article also highlights the role of social workers in subsidised employees’ identity processes. The social workers perceived the subsidised employees as participants with special needs, and subsidiszd employment as an intervention which could influence the planning and support provided during the subsidized employment. The collective identity developed by the participants fostered a sense of community, but also led to reluctance to leave the program, driven by the fear of reverting to social assistance, and once again being excluded from the labor market. The article concludes that the subsidized employees risked getting stuck in a borderland between work exclusion and work inclusion and, therefore, that subsidised employment can potentially place participants in a state of ‘marginalised inclusion’ in the labor market, instead of supporting participants into regular employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
The Limits of the Possible: Third Sector Employability Support for Vulnerable Users and the Challenge of Job Quality (2025)
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Payne, Jonathan, Jonathan Rose & Peter Butler (2025): The Limits of the Possible: Third Sector Employability Support for Vulnerable Users and the Challenge of Job Quality. In: Social Policy and Administration, S. 1-11. DOI:10.1111/spol.13162
Abstract
"Many third-sector organizations (TSOs) deliver employability support for vulnerable groups, but can they address the quality of jobs their users enter? The question is timely in the UK, given structural constraints presented by its neoliberal labor market/welfare regime and the recently elected Labor Government's aim of moving job centers towards a supportive approach focused on ‘good work’. An interesting comparison emerges with Scotland, where ‘fair work’ is more established in policy. Drawing upon third-sector literature, we develop an analytical framework for exploring TSOs' engagement with job quality, centered around framing suitable employment/employ , shaping user choices and shaping employer practice . Using surveys and interviews with TSO managers in England and Scotland, we find TSOs can adopt different strategies and that Scotland's approach may make a difference, underscoring the role of policy paradigms and power in structuring the limits of possibility." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Divergent Institutional Logics—Implementing Supported Employment in Hybrid Contexts of Danish Public Employment Services (2025)
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Salado-Rasmussen, Julia, Stella Mia Sieling-Monas & Inge Storgaard Bonfils (2025): Divergent Institutional Logics—Implementing Supported Employment in Hybrid Contexts of Danish Public Employment Services. In: Social Policy and Administration, S. 1-12. DOI:10.1111/spol.70006
Abstract
"Evidence-based supported employment (SE) is increasingly implemented in Danish public employment services (PES), which can create conflicts between old and new ways of working. Our study examines the implementation of an SE intervention based on modified Individual Placement and Support (IPS) in three Danish municipal job centres. The intervention targets young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs) with less severe mental health problems. The role of middle managers and supervisors is crucial in implementing the SE intervention into the existing organisational framework, procedures, norms and beliefs. Our analysis is founded on repeated interviews with middle managers and supervisors from 2019 to 2023. [Correction addedon 29 October 2025, after first online publication: The previous sentence has been corrected in this version.] Theoretically, this article isinformed by the conceptualisation of institutional logics. Our empirical findings show some tensions associated with the evidence-based approach's values and organising principles. However, pressures arise in daily practices related to mandatory activation, organisational structures, workflows, frontline roles, job development and caseloads. Middle managers and supervisors pursue strategic responses such as compartmentalisation and combination to navigate contradictory or sometimes even conflicting logics." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
(In)visible Sanctions: Micro-level Evidence on Compulsory Activation for Young Welfare Recipients (2025)
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Smedsvik, Bård & Roberto Iacono (2025): (In)visible Sanctions: Micro-level Evidence on Compulsory Activation for Young Welfare Recipients. In: Journal of Social Policy, Jg. 54, H. 3, S. 751-771. DOI:10.1017/S0047279423000338
Abstract
"Since the early years of activation and workfare in the 1990s, the use of welfare conditionality and benefit sanctions has been proposed among the necessary solutions to ensure the efficiency of welfare policy by reinforcing individual economic incentives. Using rich administrative registers from Norway, we produce micro-level quantitative evidence on compulsory activation for young recipients of social assistance. The empirical challenge is that activation through the threat of benefit sanctions is not a feature that unambiguously emerges from observational data, except for when sanctions indeed take place and benefits are reduced. To overcome this barrier, we introduce a novel methodology to identify individual-level effects of activation on young welfare recipients, exploiting municipal variation in the introduction of compulsory activation. More precisely, we study whether individuals who are residents in municipalities that have introduced compulsory activation display a stronger relationship between their labor market status (activation) and their benefit size (because sanctions being in place) compared to individuals residing in municipalities where activation has not been made compulsory. Our results show that there is no different relationship between social assistance benefits and passive labor market status for individuals living in municipalities that practice activation compared with individuals residing in municipalities in which activation is not yet mandatory. In other words, there is no visible effect of sanctions for passive recipients." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Compulsory activation of young welfare recipients: revisiting the trade-off between workfare and welfare generosity (2025)
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Smedsvik, Bård & Roberto Iacono (2025): Compulsory activation of young welfare recipients: revisiting the trade-off between workfare and welfare generosity. In: Socio-economic review, S. 1-25. DOI:10.1093/ser/mwaf069
Abstract
"We revisit the trade-off between workfare and welfare through a quasi-natural experiment by exploiting municipal variation from a 2017 Norwegian reform introducing compulsory activation for young welfare recipients. The results show a significant negative effect on social assistance. On the other hand, we find no effect on income adequacy, implying that other transfers mitigate the drop in social assistance. Our results convey therefore that the trade-off between workfare and welfare is binding when focusing exclusively on social assistance: investing in activation policies creates challenges to poverty alleviation channeled through the last social safety net. However, the trade-off is mitigated through other transfers, allowing us to conclude that social investment does not need to be inimical to the poor." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Activation, Work and Well‐Being: Theory, Evidence and Policy Implications (2025)
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Whitworth, Adam (2025): Activation, Work and Well‐Being: Theory, Evidence and Policy Implications. In: Social Policy and Administration, Jg. 59, H. 7, S. 1204-1213. DOI:10.1111/spol.13120
Abstract
"Despite the centrality of activation, paid work and well-being to advanced welfare systems their inter-relationships remain fragmented and underdeveloped in scholarship and policy. The present article makes original contributions to theory, evidence and policy in this context. Theoretically the article presents the two alternative accounts of these relationships and argues for their integration into a single framework. Empirically, path analyses within multivariate structural equation models examine this novel integrated theorization quantitatively for the first time in the literature using the policy case study of a UK-based voluntary Individual Placement and Support (IPS) activation program for people with substance misuse issues. The findings support our integrated theoretical framework and highlight the direct importance of activation programs to client well-being through programme participation alongside their indirect well-being importance through the well-being effects of resulting paid work transitions. The well-being implications for policy and practice are significant and further research is needed to further develop our understanding of how different activation approaches affect well-being both directly and through its shaping of differing employment types and trajectories." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Deemed as ‘Distant’: Categorizing Unemployment in Sweden’s Evolving Welfare Landscape (2025)
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Östling, Maja (2025): Deemed as ‘Distant’: Categorizing Unemployment in Sweden’s Evolving Welfare Landscape. In: Social Sciences, Jg. 14, H. 3. DOI:10.3390/socsci14030129
Abstract
"Over the past 30 years, Swedish labor market politics has swayed towards stronger workfare tendencies, emphasizing activation requirements for unemployed individuals to access welfare benefits. This process aligns with broader neoliberal reforms, fostering an individualistic view of unemployment characterized by personal responsibility for employability. In 2023, the Swedish Public Employment Service (PES) published a report addressing the needs of and solutions for long-term unemployed individuals ‘distant from the labor market’ (Sw. personer långt från arbetsmarknaden), marking the first formal use of this term as the main adhesive category in a political document. This paper examines the construction of the subject position ‘distant from the labor market’, investigating how it delineates and differentiates subgroups within the unemployed population, how this subgroup is understood in relation to other actors, and how discursive frameworks imbue this category with various meanings. Lastly, the paper discusses the categorization in relation to the current developments in the Swedish welfare system, arguing that the formalization of this category should be understood in relation to parallel political processes, such as proposals for a duty of activity for the unemployed, suggesting how this points to a way forward defined by neoliberal tendencies and welfare conditionality." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
What if all kinds of work were considered ‘real jobs,’ and everyone who worked had a job? Using imaginary thinking in the context of Swedish municipal activation services (2025)
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Östling, Maja, Sara Nyhlén & Katarina Giritli Nygren (2025): What if all kinds of work were considered ‘real jobs,’ and everyone who worked had a job? Using imaginary thinking in the context of Swedish municipal activation services. In: Economic and Industrial Democracy, S. 1-19. DOI:10.1177/0143831x251326205
Abstract
"This article explores active labor market policies through a utopian lens, focusing on Swedish municipal activation services. Users of such services participated in visionary workshops and were invited to dream about what could be different in their (working) lives. In the analysis of the participants’ dreams, a Tension between the internalization of and resistance to employability narratives, market logics, and capitalist structures emerges. By examining these dynamics, the article demonstrates how utopian thinking, rooted in experiences from the margins of the labor market, can inspire critiques of current labor systems and help in envisioning possible futures." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Active Labour Market Policies: What Works for the Long-term Unemployed? (2024)
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Eppel, Rainer, Ulrike Huemer, Helmut Mahringer & Lukas Schmoigl (2024): Active Labour Market Policies: What Works for the Long-term Unemployed? (WIFO working papers 671), Wien, 22 S.
Abstract
"There is still a lack of knowledge on how to effectively help the long-term unemployed into employment. We evaluate a wide range of active labor market policies for this target group, using a dynamic matching approach. Measures vary considerably in the extent to which they improve labor market prospects. Human capital-intensive training programmes that substantially enhance vocational skills and employment programs are most effective, short activating job search training the least. Our results suggest that not only wage subsidies in the private sector, but also direct job creation in the public and non-profit sector can work, if properly designed." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Active Labor Market Policies: What Works for the Long-Term Unemployed? (2024)
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Eppel, Rainer, Ulrike Huemer, Helmut Mahringer & Lukas Schmoigl (2024): Active Labor Market Policies: What Works for the Long-Term Unemployed? In: The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, Jg. 24, H. 1, S. 141-185. DOI:10.1515/bejeap-2023-0079
Abstract
"There is still a lack of knowledge on how to effectively help the long-term unemployed into employment. We evaluate a wide range of active labour market policies for this target group, using a dynamic matching approach. Measures vary considerably in the extent to which they improve labor market prospects. Human capital-intensive training programs that substantially enhance vocational skills and employment programs are most effective, short activating job search training the least. Our results suggest that not only wage subsidies in the private sector, but also direct job creation in the public and non-profit sectors can work, if properly designed." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © De Gruyter) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Fiscal policy instruments for inclusive labor markets: A review (2024)
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Ernst, Ekkehard, Rossana Merola & Jelena Reljic (2024): Fiscal policy instruments for inclusive labor markets: A review. (GLO discussion paper / Global Labor Organization 1406), Essen, 38 S.
Abstract
"This study provides a critical assessment of various fiscal policy instruments - including direct public job creation, active labor market and care policies, social protection measures and tax reforms - and their effectiveness in supporting the most vulnerable groups in the labor market. Although much of the literature has focused on the quantitative effects of fiscal policy, this article concentrates on the qualitative aspects and examines the role of fiscal instruments in achieving a more inclusive and fair labor market. Our review shows that the empirical literature tends to overemphasise the capacity of individual policies to mitigate inequalities, neglecting the complex interdependencies among various mechanisms and policies in place. We argue, instead, that a systematic approach is necessary to ensure equitable access to good jobs and to address the disparities between different labor market groups. We also identify significant research gaps, such as the need for longitudinal studies on the long-term policy impacts, an exploration of the regional disparities within the policy-inequality nexus and the sector-specific effects of fiscal measures, especially relevant in the context of the green and digital transition." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Towards a new era in the governance of integrated activation: A systematic review of the literature on the governance of welfare benefits and employment-related services in Europe (2010–21) (2024)
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Gerven, Minna van, Tuuli Malava, Peppi Saikku & Merita Mesiäislehto (2024): Towards a new era in the governance of integrated activation: A systematic review of the literature on the governance of welfare benefits and employment-related services in Europe (2010–21). In: Social Policy and Administration, Jg. 58, H. 3, S. 329-343. DOI:10.1111/spol.12960
Abstract
"This article presents the results of a systematic literature review of research articles (N = 72) to study the governance logic of integrated activation policies and the problems relating to reintegrating welfare benefits with services. The inductive study of the problems indicated in the literature demonstrates both the vertical and horizontal aspects of the governance of integrated activation at the street level: challenges are tied to the top-down activation policy; requirements and strategies of delivering benefits and services; collaboration and coordination in delivery chains; and risks and inequality that streel-level bureaucrats are trying to deal with in their work. The results point primarily to flaws in the vertical governance of activation, such as frontline work problems and collaborative practices between different actors and agencies. Moreover, some problems relating to collaboration and coordination, pointed towards the challenges in horizontal governance of activation. The article, however, demonstrates how the governance of integrated activation requires a coupling of these different streams of governance and understanding governance as a complex network of interdependencies and causal connections between institutions, organisations, and co-production with end users." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Work First or Education First? Frontline Service Challenges of Providing Enabling Activation (2024)
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Gjersøe, Heidi Moen & Heidi Nicolaisen (2024): Work First or Education First? Frontline Service Challenges of Providing Enabling Activation. In: Social Policy and Society, S. 1-12. DOI:10.1017/s1474746424000472
Abstract
"Activation policies, especially formal upskilling, can strengthen social inequality among long-term unemployed people. Also, receiving skill-enhancing activities may be at odds with the ‘work first’ principle. Drawing on interviews with frontline workers in the Norwegian employment and welfare service (NAV), this article analyses how frontline workers handle the challenging aspects arising from activation policies in providing enabling activities to claimants who need comprehensive support. The findings suggest that frontline workers face claimants who expect to embark on an education, and on the contrary, claimants who lack motivation or capability to do so. In both cases, frontline workers are challenged in terms of experiencing contradictory expectations from policies and users and in assessing future outcomes and suitability of the services. Education activities provided by the public employment agency (PES) involves multiple policy fields and require specific competency on the part of frontline workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
Legitimating collaboration, collaborating to legitimate: Justification work in “holistic” services for long-term unemployed persons (2024)
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Hansen, Magnus Paulsen, Signe Elmer Christensen & Peter Triantafillou (2024): Legitimating collaboration, collaborating to legitimate: Justification work in “holistic” services for long-term unemployed persons. In: Journal of Social Policy, Jg. 53, H. 3, S. 876-896. DOI:10.1017/S004727942200071X
Abstract
"To address complex social problems, such as long-term unemployment, local authorities in many countries are developing “holistic” or “integrated” services, where multiple actors and professions collaborate with a view to better meet the needs of the individual citizen. By breaking with existing practices and regulations, collaborative services must be legitimized in new ways so as to appear acceptable not only in the eyes of the public and politicians, but also to caseworkers and the long-term unemployed persons. This article examines the multifarious and sometimes neglected efforts to make these collaborative services legitimate in the eyes of this plurality of stakeholders on multiple levels of governance. Our study indicates three distinct but mutually interrelated spheres of audience that require partly conflicting justification work. We also find that the narrow pursuit of justification work to ensure legitimacy with one audience may potentially jeopardize the justification work in the other two." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
The ideological roots of the activation paradigm: How justice preferences and unemployment attributions shape public support for demanding activation policies (2024)
Zitatform
Hootegem, Arno Van, Federica Rossetti, Koen Abts & Bart Meuleman (2024): The ideological roots of the activation paradigm: How justice preferences and unemployment attributions shape public support for demanding activation policies. In: International Journal of Social Welfare, Jg. 33, H. 3, S. 617-633. DOI:10.1111/ijsw.12628
Abstract
"Research either focused on self-interest or left-right ideology to explain support for demanding active labour market policies (ALMPs). This article focuses instead on how attitudes towards these policies are rooted in the underlying policy paradigm. We link attitudes towards ALMPs to two pillars of the activation paradigm: distributive justice and unemployment attributions. Structural equational modeling is employed on the Belgian National Election Study data of 2014 (N=1901). Individuals supporting the principles of need and equity and who blame the unemployed are more in favour of demanding activation. These frameworks and hence the policy paradigm thus have substantial predictive power." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))
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Literaturhinweis
A step too far: Employer perspectives on in-work conditionality (2024)
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Jones, Katy & Calum Carson (2024): A step too far: Employer perspectives on in-work conditionality. In: Journal of European Social Policy, Jg. 34, H. 3, S. 338-353. DOI:10.1177/09589287241232817
Abstract
"This chapter explores employer perspectives on the extension of behavioural conditionality to working social security claimants (‘in-work conditionality’). As policymakers across Europe and other developed nations have pursued increasingly interventionist approaches to activating the unemployed through conditional welfare policies, the UK has gone a significant and ‘unprecedented’ step further by requiring those in receipt of in-work benefits to demonstrate their efforts to increase their working hours and/or pay. As the actors ultimately in control over the jobs people can access and progress in, understanding employer perspectives on this new policy development is critical, which, however, has so far been overlooked by policymakers and researchers. We address this omission through presenting original analysis of 84 semi-structured interviews conducted with a diverse group of employers. We find that while the UK’s Work First approach to activation has seemingly encountered little resistance from employers to date, this new Work First, Work More approach may be a step too far. We contribute theoretically by identifying a potential role for employers as latent path disruptors in policy development, and challenge the commonly-held assumption that employers are typically supportive of extensions of behavioural conditionality to social security claimants." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))