Profiles and labour potential amongst long-term unemployed jobseekers

To alleviate mismatch and labour shortages on the Flemish labour market, it is appropriate to gain insight into the labour potential amongst those who are not working, including the rising share of long-term jobseekers (LTJ). However, there is little research on LTJ in Flanders, making it unclear which levers can be used to remove barriers towards labour market entry for this group. Using a multi-actor mixed-methods approach, this project therefore aims to increase our understanding of i) variation in profiles within the target group LTJ, ii) the effectiveness of services and actions within Active Labour Market Programmes (ALMP) for this specific group, and iii) the effectiveness of actions by the Flemish Employment Office and further needs amongst employers. In work package 1, we make use of qualitative focus group interviews to gain insight into the attitudes towards labour force participation, employability, barriers and needs according to the profile of LTJ. The main shortcoming in existing literature on LTJ activation is the lack of impact evaluations for this specific target group. Consequently, work package 2 combines a Flanders-wide analysis of inflow into and effectiveness of services and actions at VDAB and partners, with a Mixed Methods experimental design in which we use Antwerp and Limburg as laboratory cases for an intervention study. In order to not only answer the question "do ALMP work?" but also to gain insight into why they are (in)effective in leading LTJ to employment, we will follow up a selection of individual cases through longitudinal qualitative research by conducting in-depth interviews with all stakeholders around a trajectory, i.e. with the jobseeker, employer and Employment Office caseworker. Work package 3 focuses on the demand side of the labour market (i.e. employers) and first of all includes an analysis of the effectiveness of actions and further needs among employers through a vignette study across Flanders. In the last work package of this project, we will synthesise the main findings of the previous work packages and organise a stakeholder workshop where the findings will be discussed and validated with the LTJ target group.

Keywords:LABOUR MARKET POLICY, LABOUR SUPPLY-DEMAND, EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION, MIXED METHODS RESEARCH

Disciplines:Labour and demographic economics, Sociology of work

Project type:Collaboration project