Measuring Employability for Disadvantaged Unemployed People? Evidence from Survey and Register Data

Abstract

Disadvantaged unemployed Danes do not easily become re-employed. Previous literature has focused on unemployment versus employment. Expanding on this, the present article is a proposal to assess disadvantaged unemployed people’s employability. On the basis of the literature, I investigate whether variables measuring health, well-being, self-efficacy, alcohol use, and drug use can be included into this measure of employability measured as subsequent re-employment. Data are on disadvantaged unemployment cash benefit recipients from the Copenhagen Unemployment and Well-Being Panel Survey (2013, 2014, N = 2400, analytical sample N = 956) and detailed register data on employment status measured weekly. The results from the analysis reveal that only parts of the proposed indicator are linked with subsequent re-employment, and comprehensive robustness checks reveal that the indicator lacks stability. However, the findings from the study can inform future studies aiming at developing an indicator of employability for disadvantaged unemployed people in Denmark and the other Nordic countries.