Abstract

So far, little is known about the extent to which employable benefit recipients make progress toward (re)integration into the labor market during the course of their support by job centers. The question of how progress beneath labor market integration can be recorded and measured has been a matter of concern to the Federal Employment Agency and the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs for years. The project aims to develop and apply a concept for measuring integration progress in order to quantify it and relate it to labor market integration and characteristics of the support process. As part of the IAB-OPAL online survey, it was possible in 2024 to ask citizens receiving welfare benefits about their employability at two points in time. Employability is a multidimensional and latent construct that reflects a person's individual potential to take up, maintain, or expand employment. The selection of dimensions for operationalizing employability is based on the objectives of the study.