Older Unemployed People Research Articles

Senior entrepreneurship following unemployment: a social identity theory perspective

This article applies social identity theory to examine how identification with social groups shapes the entrepreneurial endeavours of individuals aged 50 or over who start businesses when unemployed or under threat of redundancy. Understanding what drives older individuals to start a business as an alternative to unemployment has important policy implications: governments are interested in promoting self-employment to reduce benefits dependence among older individuals for whom finding employment in the traditional labour market can be difficult. Our exploratory analysis is based on data collected in 21 personal interviews with senior entrepreneurs in the UK who received support from an organisation dedicated to foster enterprising activity among older unemployed people. Our findings suggest that income levels beyond making ends meet is not an important motive for starting a business among this demographic group. Instead, our data highlight the relevance of non-monetary self-rewards—such as pursuit of autonomy, self-realisation, and wanting to feel active, useful and valuable—for senior entrepreneurs who start businesses under adverse conditions. This finding resonates with the European Commission’s policy of promoting ‘active ageing’. Our analysis indicates non-monetary objectives should be included in any conceptualisation of self-interest in an entrepreneurial context.

Weak Ties for a Weak Population: Expanding Personal Social Networks Among the Unemployed to Increase Job-Seeking Success

Unqualified middle-aged and older unemployed people have little chance of finding a suitable job via Internet-based systems. These individuals have a low education level, fewer technological skills, and low self-esteem as a result of long-term unemployment; therefore, their relevant job opportunities diminish. This article describes a successful pilot project among 108 chronically unemployed Jews and Arabs in 5 employment centers in Israel. By sharing each other's lists of acquaintances under the guidance of professional consultants, 41% of them found a job. The results have strengthened the authors' assumption that educating people to use expanded weak personal networks (non-Internet) to find jobs is both effective and beneficial.

Intentions to Participate in Training Among Older Unemployed People

While a considerable number of studies have focused on factors driving employees to voluntarily participate in training programs, much less is known on this topic with regard to the unemployed population, in particular the older unemployed, who often are in a vulnerable labor market position due to educational deficits and skills obsolescence. This study proposes and investigates a serial mediator model of older unemployed individuals’ training intentions grounded in propositions from social cognitive theory and the theory of planned behavior as well as prior models of employee involvement in training. The results, based on cross-sectional questionnaire data from 176 unemployed Portuguese individuals aged 40+, suggest that age, education, and proactivity have an indirect effect on training intentions via learning self-efficacy and training-related outcome expectations. Age was also directly related to stronger training intentions. These results may be useful for interventions aiming to encourage older unemployed individuals’ participation in training.

Erratum to: Germany—No Country for Old Workers?

Nevertheless, turnover rates have already revealed that starting a new job for older workers is seldom. This can also be seen by looking at the transitions from unemployment to employment. In 2010 about 21 per cent of all transitions of older workers out of unemployment led into unsubsidized employment while this figure amounts to about 30 per cent for the group between 25 and 49 years. This picture also arises when calculating the transition rate from unemployment to unsubsidized employment. In the year 2010, 3.9 per cent of the stock of older unemployed moved into unsubsidized employment while the ratio is about 7.2 per cent for unemployed between 25 and 49 years. The older unemployed people get, the poorer is their chance to find a job. For the age group from 55 to 59 the transition rate is 3.3%, for the 60 plus only 2.1%. The difficulties of bringing older unemployed back to work result in higher long-term unemployment. Compared to all unemployed the ratio of longterm unemployment among workers aged 50 plus is about 41 per cent in 2010 which is much higher than the share of

The limitations of activation policies: unemployment at the end of working life

ABSTRACTIn several European countries, older unemployed people, after reaching a certain age, are entitled to unemployment benefit payments without having to seek new employment. The coexistence of this exemption clause and of reforms aimed at containing early retirement in the respective countries reflects a conflict of political aims – on the one hand, between an efficient labour-market policy at a time of high unemployment, and on the other hand, the goal of the comprehensive activation and labour-market integration of older workers as a response to demographic change. This paper deals with the reasons for the transfer of older long-term unemployed people on to ‘facilitated benefits’ for labour-market withdrawal in Germany. The empirical analysis shows that low or no propensity to work was rarely the motive for leaving the labour market; in particular, those anticipating a low retirement income actually wanted to be re-employed. The vast majority gave three reasons for the decision to retire: an inability to cope with requirements of available jobs; a lack of job opportunities; and an absence of proper support from the public employment agency. Thus the withdrawal of older long-term unemployed people into pre-retirement cannot be attributed to a utility-maximising decision in favour of leisure and against gainful employment, but is the primary result of the scarce re-employment prospects.

Making Work Pay for the Elderly Unemployed --Evaluating Alternative Policy Reforms for Germany

We evaluate three policy reforms targeted at older unemployed people: (i) an hourly wage subsidy, (ii) an in-work credit, and (iii) an employment bonus in the form of subsidized social security contributions on low wages. The work-incentive, labor-supply, and welfare effects of these policy reforms are analyzed on the basis of a behavioral microsimulation model for Germany. We find that the simulated labor-supply effects of the three policy reforms would be rather similar and of moderate size. Our results also suggest that the hourly wage subsidy yields the highest welfare gains.

Making Work Pay for the Elderly Unemployed: Evaluating Alternative Policy Reforms for Germany

We evaluate three policy reforms targeted at older unemployed people: (i) an hourly wage subsidy, (ii) an in-work credit, and (iii) a subsidy of social security contributions on low wages. The work incentive, labour supply and welfare effects of these hypothetical reforms are analysed on the basis of a detailed micro-simulation model for Germany which includes a structural household labour supply model. We find that the simulated labour supply effects of the three policy reforms would be rather similar and of moderate size, ranging between 20,000 and 30,000 older women and between 10,000 and 20,000 older men. Our results also suggest that the hourly wage subsidy yields the highest welfare gains.

Should youth unemployment be targeted as part of a comprehensive welfare policy in South Africa?

A scheme to address youth unemployment is not an appropriate component of a social welfare net in South Africa because a higher proportion of older unemployed people are poor. Age is a very blunt proxy for inexperience (and associated labour market disadvantage) in South Africa. Placement programmes may help individuals find work, but to the overall welfare impact is undermined by substitution effects. Training programmes should not be seen as an answer to the unemployment problem (although it may help address some labour market problems). Training programmes for the unemployed are often weakly connected with the skill requirements of employers and can easily lead to an over‐supply of specific skills. Given the difficulties involved in targeting the relatively disadvantaged amongst the unemployed, one has to ask whether resources are better spent elsewhere.

Coping With Bulk Unobligated Time: The Case of Unemployment

Abstract The paper is about coping with and adapting to enforced unobligated time by people who are unemployed in late career. Qualitative data were derived through group discussions with older unemployed people, and a three-stage longitudinal study with ten unemployed persons who were interviewed in-depth over the period of one year. It was found that enforced unobligated time generated by unemployment was not compatible with leisure time. Jobless people filled time in various ways—being bored, keeping busy, being useful, spending time with family, in diversionary activities, and being absorbed in activities that sustained interest. Reduced income adversely affected participation in customary activities. People minimally affected but with good participation skills coped constructively with unobligated time. Those severely affected coped disruptively despite having good pre-existing skills. It is suggested that external supports be made available for people unable to use their personal resources to amelio...

Recession, Restructuring and the Fate of the Unemployed: Evidence in the Underclass Debate

High levels of unemployment over more than a decade together with industrial restructuring suggest there may be a widening gap between the work chances of unemployed people and the rest of the workforce in Great Britain. Labour Force Survey data show that the proportion of unemployed people who had found work one year later was much lower after the economic recovery of the late 1980s than it was ten years previously. We model trends between 1979 and 1989 in the work chances of unemployed people relative to the chances of people in work. During the first half of the decade work chances of these two groups diverged, and though later economic recovery enabled young unemployed people to regain their 1979 position relative to young people in work, the relative work chances of older unemployed people were permanently impaired. These trends relate closely to employers' recruitment rates, and suggest that changes in the type of labour sought by employers have been particularly disadvantageous for older people, especially men. Our findings do not support the idea of the emergence of an unemployed `underclass' as a general phenomenon, but prolonged high levels of unemployment in the 1990s may change the picture.