scholarly journals Skills and Schemes: The Training Response to Youth Unemployment

Author(s):  
Jane Higgins

The introduction of the Access training scheme in 1987 was a significant point in the history of active labour market policy in New Zealand and represented a shift away from work schemes to an almost exclusive focus on the provision of training. This shift suggests a changed interpretation of the causes of unemployment and the accompanying official discourse reflects this, referring to skill deficits and mismatches forming rigidities in the labour market and leading to unemployment. This paper investigates the adequacy of this skill discourse (which remains current) and asks whether the provision of schemes such as Access is consistent with the discourse, and is an appropriate policy response to the problem of youth unemployment. The paper adopts a case study approach, analysing the changing structure of employment in the Christchurch youth labour market over the period 1976-1991.

Author(s):  
Giorgio Liotti

AbstractThe rise of youth unemployment has been one of the most serious problems which policymakers have had to deal with over the last two decades. Neoclassical economic theory suggests that the deregulation (i.e. higher flexibility) of the labour market stimulates firms to hire young people and—therefore—reduces youth unemployment. The aim of this study is to empirically test the validity of this hypothesis, analysing data on youth unemployment and labour market regulation index (LMRI) for 28 European countries in the period between 2000 and 2018. The empirical results—using two different econometric techniques (time and fixed effects that allows to take into account the presence of heterogeneity of countries in the model and pooling mean group (PMG) estimator providing results about the short and long run relationship between LMRI and youth unemployment)—do not provide evidence in support of the neoclassical hypothesis. In particular, the effect of higher flexibility of the labour market is negative and statistically significant (at 1%) only when a dummy variable for the Eastern country group is included in the model. Vice-versa, the paper shows that higher economic growth and higher investment in active labour market policy represent the key variables to reduce the youth unemployment. In conclusion, the paper raises many doubts that the introduction of flexibility measures in itself can represent a useful tool to counteract the increase of youth unemployment in Europe.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-69
Author(s):  
Laura Južnik Rotar

Youth unemployment is of paramount concern for the European Union. Young people are facing potentially slow and difficult transitions into stable jobs. What optimally supports young people on the labour market poses a challenging question for economic policy makers. Active labour market policies can be beneficial to young unemployed people. The aim of active labour market policy is to improve employability of the unemployed. The consequences of an overly generous welfare state can be a reduction in motivation to work. The effectiveness of employment programmes is therefore a crucial step in the process. This paper aims to estimate the treatment effect of subsidized employment programmes on young Dutch unemployed people using difference in differences propensity score matching. We test whether the effects of subsidized employment programmes for young Dutch unemployed people are positive and strong in both the short and long term on the probability of re-employment and on the probability of participation in the regular educational system in comparison with the outcome produced in the event that an individual would continue seeking employment as an unemployed person. The probability of re-employment in short-term circumstances is positive, but small. Whereas with long-term examples (two years after the programme start) the probability is negative. Alternatively, the probability of participation in regular educational systems is positive in the short-term as well as in the long-term, but evidently decreases in the long-term. Welfare reforms undertaken in the Netherlands are directed towards enhancing efficiency. The role of social partners in social security administrations is reduced and the reforms are intended to promote reintegration of people who are out of work. There is a general agreement that the Netherlands is going in the right direction by giving priority to work and study over benefits, as it has become evident that generous social benefits make employment policies inefficient.


Sociologija ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-302
Author(s):  
Velinka Tomic

The population of young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina is confronted with many challenges - economic, institutional and social. The participation of young people in education drops significantly after they turn 18, while entry into the labour market happens around 20 years of age. Unemployment mostly affects people with lower education levels, such as those with a secondary school degree or qualified workers. The youth unemployment rate, the most commonly used indicator of the disadvantages faced by young people in the labour market, is very high in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The single most significant factor affecting the labour market experiences of young people is the extensive informal economy in the country. Active Labour Market Policy for young people attempts to reduce the problems faced by young people in their attempts to find decent work once they enter the labour market. They attempt to remedy failures of the educational system and to improve the efficiency of labour market matching. The percentage of unemployed youth is of great importance because the youth are in the age when the ability and motivation for work are at their peak. Any society that excludes half of its population from the sphere of work acts against public interest.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 910-918
Author(s):  
Lucia Svabova ◽  
◽  
Vladimir Borik ◽  
Marek Durica ◽  
Johanna Grudin ◽  
...  

Active labour market policy interventions are vide used tool of a government against unemployment. One of the most frequently used intervention for young jobseekers in Slovakia is a Contribution for Graduate practice. This measure is intended for young unemployed jobseekers as a tool of gaining first contact with the open labour market and with potential employer and gaining first work experiences. In this paper we present a qualitative survey of Graduate practice that was made as an ex-post evaluation of this intervention by its participants in Slovakia. This evaluation of the intervention was carried out at the request of the European Commission not only in Slovakia but also in several countries of the European Union. The qualitative evaluation, as a part of this rigorous intervention evaluation, provides feedback from the real intervention participants and brings some suggestions to improve the parameters and conditions of Graduate practice intervention and its realization. These improvements are useful not only for participants themselves, for companies in which young graduates are employed but also for the state budget in the form of returned or saved invested funds because of better functioning of the intervention. Based on the results of this feedback from its real participants, some parameters, conditions and details of the Graduate practice intervention have been changed and added in Slovakia.


2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 507-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Blinova ◽  
Vladimir Markov ◽  
Viktor Rusanovskiy

The purpose of the study is to conduct a statistical analysis and to perform a quantitative assessment of the degree and the dynamics of the interregional differences in youth unemployment in Russia between 2005 and 2013. We decompose the interregional differentiation into “within-group” and “between-group” differences. We also analyse the dynamics of the within-group and between-group differences and estimate their contribution to changes in the interregional differentiation of youth unemployment. Additionally, we estimate the degree and the dynamics of the interregional differences of the youth labour market in Russia in times of crisis and recovery growth. The results show a reduction in the interregional differences in unemployment rates between 2005 and 2008, while in 2009–2013, the interregional differentiation of the labour market increased. We found that the socio-economic effects of youth unemployment, as well as the behavioural response to economic shocks in the age groups of 15–19 and 20–29 years were significantly different.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 377-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Zoellner ◽  
Michael Fritsch ◽  
Michael Wyrwich

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the results of studies that investigate the most important active labour market policy (ALMP) measures in Germany. A focus is also on programmes devoted to foster entrepreneurship which can make important contributions to a country’s growth and social welfare.Design/methodology/approachThe study relies on quantitative and qualitative assessments and a comparison of results of previous studies on ALMPs.FindingsThe available evidence suggests that most ALMP measures increase labour market prospects of the participants. In particular, evaluations of the entrepreneurship promotion activities show high success rates as well as high cost efficiency. The bulk share of participants of entrepreneurship measures is still self-employed after several years and nearly one-third of these businesses had at least one employee. The authors mention problems regarding the evaluation of previous programmes and highlight future challenges of German ALMP.Originality/valueThis is the first study on ALMP that has an extensive and explicit focus on entrepreneurship-promoting programs.


Author(s):  
Johan Bo Davidsson

For many decades it seemed that the Swedish model was immune to change. Welfare scholars saw in Sweden a paragon of an equal society based on a generous welfare state that had withstood the pressures of globalisation. While it is true that some welfare institutions are still intact, that is no longer the case in labour market policy. This cannot be explained by fiscal austerity imposed by the EU; rather it was the economic crisis in the early 1990s that first set reforms in motion. This chapter traces labour market reforms in Sweden over the past two decades. The pattern suggested here is one in which labour market outsiders have borne the brunt of reforms. This can be seen in the manner in which labour market flexibility was introduced, the fact that many of the unemployed now stand outside the social insurance system, in the declining value of social assistance benefits and perhaps most strikingly in the radical cuts to spending on active labour market policy.


2018 ◽  
pp. 59-90

This chapter examines countries' performance regarding youth unemployment. Although the labour market situation of young people has started to improve in a number of countries since the Great Recession of 2007–8, youth unemployment still remains very high across Europe. High youth unemployment rates reflect young people's difficulties in securing employment, or the inefficiency of the labour market. Germany and the Netherlands have established the most effective institutions to achieve a high integration of 15–19 year-olds in education and employment. Indeed, both Germany and the Netherlands are amongst the highest performing countries in the EU for making sure their young people are in employment. Austria and Denmark also achieve good youth labour market and employment outcomes. Meanwhile, countries like France and the UK try to facilitate school-to-work (STW) transitions by lowering labour costs through subsidies or low employment protection.


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