The social stigma of unemployment: consequences of stigma consciousness on job search attitudes, behaviour and success

Gerhard Krug,Monika Jungbauer-Gans,Katrin Drasch

doi:10.1186/s12651-019-0261-4

Abstract

Studies show that the unemployed face serious disadvantages in the labour market and that the social stigma of unemployment is one explanation. In this paper, we focus on the unemployed’s expectations of being stigmatized (stigma consciousness) and the consequences of such negative expectations on job search attitudes and behaviour. Using data from the panel study “Labour Market and Social Security” (PASS), we find that the unemployed with high stigma consciousness suffer from reduced well-being and health. Regarding job search, the stigmatized unemployed are more likely to expect that their chances of re-employment are low, but in contrast, they are more likely to place a high value on becoming re-employed. Instead of becoming discouraged and passive, we find that stigmatized unemployed individuals increase their job search effort compared to other unemployed individuals. However, despite their higher job search effort, the stigma-conscious unemployed do not have better re-employment chances.

Highlights

Our main result is that instead of leading to a reduced job search effort, those unemployed with a higher stigma consciousness are more likely to engage in an active job search, use more job search methods, spend more time searching for jobs, etc. Despite these positive associations with job search effort, we find that high stigma consciousness is not correlated with re-employment chances
Hypotheses 1 and 2 posit that people suffer from unemployment stigma, and higher stigma consciousness is associated with lower subjective well-being and lower health
7 Discussion and conclusion An important strand of literature in labour market research is concerned with the effect of unemployment stigma on re-employment chances

Summary

Introduction

Empirical evidence has been presented for social exclusion (Hirseland and Ramos Lobato 2014), network withdrawal (Jones 1988), marital dissolution (Hansen 2005), financial shame (Rantakeisu et al 1999), ill health (Krug and Eberl 2018), as well as reduced wage levels (Gangl 2004), reduced well-being (Mousteri et al 2018), even after re-employment For many of these consequences, social stigma is considered one of the central mechanisms (for an overview, see Brand 2015). One strand of literature in labour market research explicitly addresses unemployment as a social stigma and shows that it might be these stereotypical beliefs that can hinder the unemployed from getting a job. This literature focusses on the discrimination of the unemployed, especially by firms during the hiring process. In a recent survey using German data, Rebien and Rothe (2018) showed that discrimination against the unemployed is

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Conclusion