Unemployment insurance for the self-employed: Few business founders insure themselves against unemployment

Abstract

"The number of business founders who insure themselves against unemployment has decreased substantially over the last years. In 2018, merely 3,000 business founders joined the insurance. Using survey data, this policy brief investigates founders’ decisions to insure against unemployment. Founders can insure themselves against unemployment only within the first three months after start-up. About 24 percent of the respondents who did not insure missed this deadline or consider this period too short, 38 percent claim that they could not afford the contributions when starting their business, and 35 percent did not expect to benefit from the insurance. Many respondents are convinced that their business will not fail or that they will quickly find a job again. However, the Corona crisis makes clear how quickly the economic situation can change and that an insurance against unemployment might be important for the self-employed." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Jahn, E. & Oberfichtner, M. (2020): Freiwillige Arbeitslosenversicherung: Nur wenige Selbstständige versichern sich gegen die Folgen von Arbeitslosigkeit. (IAB-Kurzbericht 11/2020), Nürnberg, 8 p.