Integration and participation through publicly funded employment - it all depends on the target group

Abstract

"This IAB statement addresses the Federal Government's draft of a Participation Opportunities Act ('Entwurf eines Zehnten Gesetzes zur Änderung des Zweiten Buches Sozialgesetzbuch - Schaffung neuer Teilhabechancen für Langzeitarbeitslose auf dem allgemeinen und sozialen Arbeitsmarkt' (Draft of a tenth act to amend the German Social Code Book Two - Creation of new participation opportunities for long-term unemployed persons on the first and social labour markets), Bundestag printed paper 19/4725), the application 'Neue Perspektiven für langzeitarbeitslose Menschen durch einen Sozialen Arbeitsmarkt ermöglichen' (Enabling new perspectives for long-term unemployed people through a social labour market) by the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group (Bundestag printed matter 19/591) and the application 'Perspektiven für Langzeiterwerbslose durch gute öffentlich geförderte Beschäftigung' (Perspectives for long-term unemployed people through good publicly funded employment) by the Die Linke parliamentary group (Bundestag printed matter 19/2593). The draft legislation of the Federal Government envisages two different forms of supported employment: In addition to a wage subsidy that has the character of an integration allowance, this is about the creation of long-term supported employment for a group of people with very poor opportunities on the labour market and with the primary objective of ensuring participation. The latter has already been discussed under the heading of 'social labour market' for a while. The two applications of the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and Die Linke parliamentary groups take up the idea of supported employment for those with poor labour market opportunities. This suggests that the basic idea of a social labour market is met with a broad political consensus, even if the target group and the objectives of the applications differ somewhat from the draft legislation. Since the situation on the labour market is used as an argument both in the two applications and in the draft legislation, in its statement, the IAB first describes essential results of the recent labour market developments - in particular with regard to long periods of unemployment and benefit receipt. Finally, the IAB comments on the draft legislation of the Federal Government and includes positions of the IAB regarding employment-accompanying assistance (job coaching) and regarding the funding of such measures through a passive-active transfer. We will refer to these positions in the following statements on the two applications." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Bauer, F., Bruckmeier, K., Kupka, P., Lietzmann, T., Promberger, M., Ramos Lobato, P. & Wolff, J. (2018): Integration und Teilhabe durch öffentlich geförderte Beschäftigung - auf die Zielgruppe kommt es an. Öffentliche Anhörung von Sachverständigen vor dem Ausschuss für Arbeit und Soziales des Deutschen Bundestages am 5. November 2018. (IAB-Stellungnahme 10/2018), Nürnberg, 29 p.