Abstract

The financing model C is part of the labour market programme “Perspective 50plus”, which aims at promoting the integration of older, long-term unemployed persons with multiple obstacles regarding the job integration into the active workforce. Within the framework of this implementation study, the relation between structures and strategies used by the job centers implementing the financing model C and their success in raising the participants’ activation and integration were investigated in cooperation with an external project partner.
These structures and strategies were identified in a web-based survey of 327 different job centers, which were carried out in two successive survey waves (2011 and 2012). Improvements regarding the activation of participants were mainly measured through close monitoring of their respective employability index, all changes in which were determined in several waves of telephone interviews with more than 900 persons.
The aforementioned relations between structures and strategies used by the job centers and their success in raising the participants’ activation were analysed using regression models.. Results show that limiting the target group to participants who are comparably younger and closer to the labour market helps job centers achieve a stronger positive effect on the activation of their participants.. Rigid eligibility periods and sanctions did not prove to be expedient. This strategy also holds true for results concerning the integration of participants into employment subject to social insurance contributions, where concentrating on younger participants again leads to better outcomes. On the structural level the integration probability rises when job centers outsource employment services to external service providers. Moreover, focussing on a fast re-entry into employment produces positive short-term effects regarding the integration probability, since this strategic approach prefers the quick integration of participants into minor employment over longer activation periods, possibly leading into employment subject to social insurance contributions. Further research should investigate long-term effects of this strategic approach.