Abstract

This project investigates entries into as well as effects of Active Labor Market Programs (ALMPs) for Unemployment Benefit II (UB II) recipients with diverging types of employment histories. The expectation is that employment histories should vary substantially among people who are non-employed UB II recipients at a given point in time. This project aims to characterize employment histories more comprehensively than would be possible using simple measures of employment experience or duration since last job. This can contribute to gaining more in-depth insight into ALMP assignment rates and employment effects for people with specific types of employment histories and related employment obstacles.
The sample consists of people who were non-employed UB II recipients on 31 August 2012. On the basis of a sequence analysis of their employment histories, cluster analysis will be performed. Thus the first step is to determine distinct employment history clusters. Potentially, these might for instance include clusters of people with strongly intermittent employment histories, with long employment gaps, or with mainly uninsured minijobs.
The second step is then to compare ALMP participation rates between the people in the different employment history clusters. In a final step, effects of participating in various types of ALMPs on a number of different employment outcomes will be analyzed separately for each cluster, using matching methods. This can contribute to a better understanding of which types of ALMPs are particularly beneficial for overcoming specific types of employment difficulties. A possible question may for instance be if specific ALMPs can help people with strongly intermittent employment biographies to find more stable employment. Another question might be which ALMPs help people who in the past were predominantly employed in minijobs find insured employed. Further questions will relate to specific employment difficulties connected to the determined employment history Clusters.