Can Active Labour Market Programmes Emulate the Mental Health Benefits of Regular Paid Employment? Longitudinal Evidence from the United Kingdom

Active Labour Market Programmes (ALMPs), which form important components of employment support policies around the world, have been found to improve mental health and wellbeing of participants. However, it remains unclear how these health effects compare with the effects of different types of employment for men and women. Using 1991–2019 panel data in the UK, we find that unemployed women derive similar mental health benefits from ALMPs compared with employment. Unemployed men also benefit from ALMPs but obtain significantly more health benefits from formal employment. Such benefits are particularly pronounced in full-time, permanent and upper/middle-status jobs. Further analyses reveal that programmes that deliver human capital training have larger mental health benefits than employment assistance ALMPs. These findings provide a more nuanced understanding of the mental health impacts of ALMPs compared with different types of employment, and highlight the need for a more gender-sensitive design in labour market interventions.

The Impact on Employment of Active Labour Market Policies: An Evaluation of Public Employment Services (PES) in Kosovo

This paper evaluates the effects that Active Labour Market Programmes (ALMPs) as a component of Public Employment Services (PES) in Kosovo, have on their participants. The study focuses on the likelihood of individual employment as a result of the PES measures using microdata from the Labour Force Survey in Kosovo. Under deficiency of estimates on labour market measures effectiveness, the empirical analysis in this paper confirms the positive role of active labour market programmes in Kosovo. Assessments show that groups targeted by employment offices have increased their probability of being employed. Estimation results may suggest that it would be appropriate for the activity of the Employment Offices and in general, of active policies, to grow their influence. However, Employment Offices would need to meet with a greater number of individuals who could benefit from their increased employability and activity in the labour market. Moreover, it is recommended that the active policies are accompanied by other complementary policies while designing an economic environment that provides incentives for job creation.

Effectiveness of Active Labour Market Programmes on the Job Quality of Welfare Recipients in Germany

Using rich administrative data on unemployed welfare recipients in Germany and propensity score matching, the author analyses the effects of participating in four major active labour market programmes (ALMPs) on various dimensions of job quality. In Germany, welfare recipients may suffer from poor job quality because they are forced to accept any reasonable job offer. However, few studies consider the effects of participation in ALMPs on job quality. The results imply that participation in a programme not only increases the probability of taking jobs but also increases the probability of holding a high-quality job for some dimension of job quality. In particular, further vocational training is very effective in terms of job quality for West German women. Thus, job centres should focus on the activation of unemployed welfare recipients.