In many respects, paid work is key to social inclusion, and unemployment, underemployment, low wages and limited participation in working life are the risks commonly associated with this. They present major challenges for those affected and may act in conjunction with other individual and societal risks to create critical points or times in a person’s life, unequal opportunities and social exclusion. As a result, the risks around participation in the labour force are a key driver of economic and social inequality, and thus have the potential to create poverty and threaten social cohesion. This calls for welfare-state intervention guided by science and research.
In this focus area, the IAB shines a light on characteristics and processes at the individual, household and institutional level that are particularly relevant to inequality. The causal connections between these characteristics are also of interest here. A closer look is also taken at the advisory and placement services provided by job centres and at the practical implementation, effectiveness and efficiency of socio-political interventions. In this context, the focus area is examining the impact of these on lives, social stratification, labour force participation and economic, social and cultural inclusion.
A focal point of research in 2026 will be on groups of people who face particular obstacles in accessing the labour market. For example, it will examine how the transfer of responsibility for vocational rehabilitation from job centres to employment agencies is viewed by those affected. Another focus will be on Ukrainian refugees in the context of SGB II, and their integration into work, and on mothers in receipt of SGB II support. Descriptive analysis will focus in particular on gender roles and attitudes towards the employment of mothers’ in receipt of basic income support.
The effects of the 2023 change to the rules for jobseekers claiming early retirement while in receipt of basic income support will continue to be examined, along with the short-term effects on career paths of the grace period for housing costs (‘Karenzzeit Wohnen’), also introduced in 2023. Under this legislation, the costs of housing are covered in full by the job centre for twelve months from the initial receipt of welfare benefits. Finally, the research will look at the implementation of comprehensive internal integration counselling (Interne Ganzheitliche Integrationsberatung, INGA) under SGB III and employment-oriented case management, as well as the local authority integration services provided under §16a SGB II. It will examine the support given to unemployed people who have great difficulty entering the labour market, the quality of advice provided in these support schemes, and the perspective of the unemployed people who receive this support.
Activities
- Publications on the topic: Labour Force Participation, Poverty, and Social Policy
- Projects on the topic: Labour Force Participation, Poverty, and Social Policy
Departments
- Staff Unit Research Coordination
- Research Department Joblessness and Social Inclusion
- Research Department Basic Income Support and Activation
- Research Group Basic Income Support and the Labour Market
- Research Department Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security
- Regional Research Network
- Working Group Gender Studies
- Working Group Quality of Employment
- Working Group Qualitative Methods
- Working Group Social protection in changing times
