Abstract

Job counselling in German jobcentres aims at getting job seekers into employment. In order to make job counselling effective, jobcentre advisors and job seekers have to cooperate. That cooperation relies on (a minimum of) trust. Trust enables cooperation in a situation characterised by uncertainty, as both advisors and job seekers face during job counselling. Trust may be directed at other people but also at institutions and social systems. Thus, trust is also relevant to the relation between job seekers and the jobcentre as an organisation.