'Ein-Euro-Jobs' in Deutschland

Abstract

"By the time the Second Social Code (SGB II) came into force in January 2005, the structure of programmes of active labour market policy was changed by the introduction of the SGB II-work opportunities, respectively additional jobs (so-called 'one-euro jobs'). According to §16 (3) (now §16d) of the SGB II those programmes were now employed replacing former measures. On behalf of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the Department of Sociology of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg (IfS) carried out the qualitative fieldwork of the research project 'One-euro jobs' in Germany: Qualitative case studies of the impact of the SGB II-work opportunities in employment structure and labour market behaviour of organizations from September 2005 to May 2007. This research project aimed to capture the interaction of the actors involved in shaping the local or municipal labour market policy and to comprehend which modes of application for which target is employed and which objectives are pursued regarding these networks. To account for these issues, all relevant stakeholders which were involved in the creation of the programme of work opportunities were included in the qualitative research project. Thereby, the institution responsible for implementation e. g. jobcentre, political actors such as chambers, trade unions and local politicians, and the public, welfare, civil society and private sector organizations are to be mentioned. We were interested in identifying the factors which empirically determine the orientation of one-euro jobs in terms of social policy and labour market policy, which employment effects develop in companies and sectors and finally which job opportunities arise for long-term unemployed. The research results show significant differences regarding the objective, the nature and extent of programme use and the design of work opportunities in the local networks. During the investigation period, a consistent use of this labour market policy instrument cannot be found. On closer inspection, this may not come as a surprise: By introducing work opportunities a universal tool for various fields of labour market and social policy has been created which was previously covered by different, problem- and code-specific legal instruments. While the - politically significant - difference in the implementation of SGB II institutions (ARGE, opting municipality or separate responsibility of tasks) in order to create and form the framework for work opportunities turned out to be rather secondary, network exogenous factors (economic conditions, the unemployment rate, size of the municipality) and network endogenous aspects (relation between SGB II institution and the organizations that use the measures, transparency of networks and practices, ways of negotiating) were especially decisive for the differences in use and purpose of the SGB II-work opportunities. On the one hand, objectives vary depending on these factors since they were typically either involved in social policy on the preservation of social integration or in labour market policy focused on the reintegration into employment. On the other hand, these differences in orientation furthermore led to diverse types of work opportunities and success ratings. In addition to the variety of practices regarding the arrangement of work opportunities overall patterns such as creaming and dumping processes are observed and the fact that employment opportunities alone are only limited in their impact on employment opportunities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Sowa, F., Klemm, M. & Freier, C. (2012): 'Ein-Euro-Jobs' in Deutschland. Qualitative Fallstudien zur Auswirkung der SGB-II-Arbeitsgelegenheiten auf Beschäftigungsstruktur und Arbeitsmarktverhalten von Organisationen. (IAB-Forschungsbericht 15/2012), Nürnberg, 140 p.