Reemployment Outcomes Research Articles

How unemployment benefit duration shapes startup motivation and growth

AbstractBusiness creation is economically important, and unemployment precedes the creation of a substantial share of new firms. Yet, most research has focused on analyzing the effects of unemployment insurance policies on re-employment outcomes, ignoring self-employment. In this paper, we analyze how the potential duration of unemployment benefits, a fundamental design choice of unemployment insurance systems, affects whether new firms are founded out of opportunity or necessity and their growth potential. To this end, we construct a comprehensive dataset on German firm founders that links administrative social insurance information with business survey data. Exploiting reform and age-related exogenous variation in the potential duration of unemployment benefits, we find that longer potential benefit duration implies longer actual unemployment and, as a consequence, more necessity entrepreneurship and worse startup outcomes in terms of sales and employment growth. We explain this overall effect of potential benefit duration through a mix of compositional and individual-level duration effects. Our findings underline that new firms started out of unemployment are a highly heterogeneous group and suggest that the (optimal) design of unemployment insurance systems has important externalities on whether innovation- and growth-oriented firms are started out of unemployment.

Tác động của chiến lược tìm việc đến kết quả tìm việc của thanh niên trên địa bàn Bình Dương

This study explores the impact of exploratory, haphazard, and focused strategies on three aspects of re-employment outcomes, including income satisfaction, compatibility between abilities, and organizational commitment. Data were collected from 384 young people who were unemployed and found work in the past three months in Binh Duong. The results of hypothesis testing show that the exploratory strategy has a positive impact on organizational commitment and a negative effect on the level of income satisfaction. A focused strategy positively impacts all three aspects of re-employment outcomes. The haphazard strategy only hurt organizational commitment. The results suggest implications for policymakers and unemployed individuals in building intelligent job search strategies that are ready to adapt to changes in the labor market.

Age Differences in Unemployment Risk and Reemployment Outcomes in Late Working Life in Sweden

ABSTRACT Participation of older workers in the labor market depends, among other things, on older workers employment chances. This study examines age differences regarding risk of unemployment and reemployment outcomes in late working life in Sweden. Using Swedish registry data, we analyzed the probability of unemployment as well as work-related activity following unemployment (wage- or self-employment; exit; downward mobility) of all people born between 1954 and 1968 (aged 49–63) and registered in Sweden between the years 2012 and 2018. Results show that although risk of unemployment does not differ significantly across age groups, younger age groups are more likely to be reemployed as wage-employed while older age groups are more likely to be reemployed as self-employed or exit working life. After an unemployment period, older employees are more likely to have a lower wage than during their previous employment or become part-time unemployed. We conclude that different age groups have unequal chances in late working life in terms of reemployment, risk of exit, and risk of downward mobility following unemployment. Policies for extending working life and promoting inequality should include measures for increasing employability of older workers such as anti-discriminatory laws and dealing with skills mismatch.

Does Economic Hardship Influence the Job Search Quality and Reemployment Outcomes?

Does Economic Hardship Influence the Job Search Quality and Reemployment Outcomes?

Resilience among laid-off employees in banking sector: evidence from Lebanon

In light of extensive research examining job termination and its effects on the economy, organizations, and individuals (Anger et al. 2017, Deb et al. 2011, Hanisch 1999, Leana and Feldman 1988), this study aims to specifically explore the impact of fear and resilience on reemployment among laid-off employees from the Lebanese banking sector. Given the significant challenges faced by the Lebanese banking sector recently, resulting in a substantial number of employee layoffs, it is essential to investigate the extent to which these emotions influence the reemployment outcomes of affected individuals. To note that this paper is a conceptual paper intended to lay the groundwork for future analysis in the areas of fear and resilience, specifically in the time after job termination in the Lebanese banking sector. This paper will adopt a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to gather comprehensive data. The sample will consist of former employees who were laid off from various Lebanese banks during one of the most severe economic collapses. The quantitative phase will involve administering a standardized survey instrument to measure the emotions of fear and resilience experienced by the participants. Fear will be assessed by examining anxiety levels, concerns about financial stability, and worries about career prospects. Resilience will be evaluated by exploring coping mechanisms, self-efficacy, and adaptability to change. The survey will also include demographic and employment-related questions. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with a subset of participants to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences. The interviews will explore the specific fears encountered, the strategies employed to cope with the layoff, and the impact of these emotions on the participants' job search process. The collected data will be analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Statistical analyses, such as correlation and regression analyses, will be conducted to examine the relationships between fear, resilience, and reemployment outcomes. The qualitative data will be analyzed thematically to identify recurring patterns, emerging themes, and narratives related to the research question. The findings of this research will contribute to the existing literature on the impact of emotions on reemployment following job loss, particularly within the context of the Lebanese banking sector. The results will shed light on the extent to which fear and resilience influence individuals' ability to secure new employment after being laid off. Furthermore, the study will provide valuable insights into the coping mechanisms and strategies that laid-off employees utilize to navigate the challenging job market. The implications of this research are twofold. First, it will inform policymakers and practitioners about the emotional experiences of laid-off employees in the Lebanese banking sector and highlight the importance of addressing their fears and enhancing their resilience during the transition to reemployment. Second, it will contribute to the development of effective support programs and interventions aimed at facilitating the successful reintegration of laid-off individuals into the workforce. Overall, this research will deepen our understanding of the emotions of fear and resilience among laid-off employees and their impact on reemployment outcomes. By examining these factors in the specific context of the Lebanese banking sector, it will provide valuable insights into the challenges faced by individuals in a turbulent economic environment and offer recommendations to promote their successful reemployment.

Bringing Them In or Pushing Them Out? The Labor Market Effects of Pro-cyclical Unemployment Assistance Reductions

We exploit variation from an unanticipated labor market reform in 2012 Spain to causally estimate the effects of pro-cyclical unemployment assistance (UA) reductions on job search behavior and re-employment outcomes. Shorter benefit durations effectively bring individuals back to work and reduce non-employment duration. However, they also induce displacements out of the labor force and strong substitution patterns towards other, less generous, welfare programs, highlighting the social insurance role of long-term benefits during economic downturns. Despite the sharp drop in non-employment duration, we also document a significant decrease in re-employment wages, consistent with reduced workers' reservation wages and limited duration dependence. Heterogeneity analyses show that relatively younger workers are the ones that are brought back into re-employment in lower-quality jobs, while older workers are pushed out of the labor force. Looking at responses over the non-employment spell, we provide evidence against the standard assumption of forward-looking behavior of benefit recipients, as we do not detect any change in workers' behavior before benefit exhaustion. Overall, we estimate that the reform induced only moderate fiscal savings for the government.

Benefit duration, job search behavior and re-employment

This paper studies how the potential duration of unemployment benefits affects early job search behavior and re-employment outcomes. We exploit an unexpected reform of the German unemployment insurance (UI) scheme in 2008, which increased the potential benefit duration from 12 to 15 months for benefit recipients of age 50 to 54. Based on detailed survey data and a difference-in-differences design, we estimate that one additional month of potential benefits reduces early job applications by around 10%. Using social security data, we further find that the extension of benefits increases the average nonemployment duration of individuals entering UI after the reform. Among individuals who got treated at later stages of their unemployment spell, the increased UI coverage does not appear to come at the cost of longer nonemployment. A cautious back-of-the-envelope calculation reveals substantial job finding returns to early search effort.

Unemployment Benefit Duration and Startup Success

Despite the importance of business creation for the economy and a relevant share of new firms being started out of unemployment, most research has focused on analyzing the effect of unemployment insurance (UI) policies on reemployment outcomes that ignore self-employment. In this paper, we assess how UI benefit duration affects the motivation for creating a startup while unemployed and the subsequent firms’ success. To do so, we create a comprehensive dataset on founders in Germany that links administrative social insurance with survey data. Exploiting reform- and age-based exogenous variations in potential benefit duration (PBD) within the German UI system, we find that longer PBD leads to longer actual unemployment duration for those becoming self-employed. Furthermore, the UI duration elasticity for these individuals is higher than common estimates for those individuals becoming re-employed. With increasing unemployment benefit duration, the founders’ outcomes in terms of self-assessed motivation, sales, and employment growth lessen. This overall causal effect of PBD can be rationalized with a mix of composition and individual-level duration effects. Therefore, our findings suggest that it is important to consider the fiscal externality of UI on startup success when it comes to the (optimal) design of UI systems.

Determinants of postdisplacement reemployment outcomes and occupation changes

AbstractWe investigate the roles played by agglomeration (proxied by population density) and occupational distribution on postdisplacement employment outcomes for US workers, focusing on the probability of being employed, the likelihood of changing occupations, and the occupational distance between the old and new occupations (where occupational distance is defined as the difference in job tasks between two occupations). Overall, we find that the local occupational distribution has a greater impact on our outcome variables compared with our agglomeration measure. Our findings suggest policy makers should look closely at occupational distribution when designing job training programs and proposals for relocation vouchers.

The Effects of Extended Unemployment Benefits: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

This paper uses administrative unemployment insurance (UI) data and an unemployment benefits extension for workers aged 45 or older in Taiwan to estimate the effects of the extended benefits on unemployment duration and reemployment outcomes. Using the regression discontinuity design, we estimate that a 90-day increase in potential duration increases the insured duration by 57 days and the non-employment duration by 41 days. While we do not find wage gains for overall UI recipients around 45 years old, the benefits extension is estimated to increase the reemployment wage for the lower-wage workers who are most likely to exhaust their benefits. Our findings suggest that the liquidity constraints at the exhaustion point might play an important role in the effect of a benefit extension on job match quality.

The Effect of Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion on Post-Displacement Labor Supply Among the Near-Elderly

Expanded health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides alternative channels to obtain health insurance coverage outside employment, which in theory may affect whether people want to work, how much they work, and the sorting of individuals into jobs. Although health insurance exchanges are available in all states, ACA Medicaid expansion is only available in states that chose to expand Medicaid coverage. The state-level variation in timing of Medicaid expansion provides a quasi-experiment setting that can be used to examine how health insurance coverage affected labor supply. In this paper, I study how Medicaid expansion affects the labor supply and re-employment outcomes of displaced (involuntarily unemployed) workers who are near-elderly, low-income, non-married, childless, and non-disabled. Data from 2011-2016 waves of monthly Current Population Survey (CPS) as well as 2010-2016 waves of Displaced Workers Survey (DWS) are used. Results from a discrete-choice model using the CPS suggest that, some displaced workers in expansion states became less likely to exit unemployment to employment while some other became more likely to exit unemployment to not-in-labor-force immediately following Medicaid expansion. While robustness tests suggest this may partly be attributed to state-level idiosyncrasies, my results reject large and persistent effect of Medicaid expansion on unemployment exits. The DWS does not have enough statistical power to identify the difference in reemployment outcomes between displaced workers in expansion and non-expansion states.

Determinants of Post-Displacement Reemployment Outcomes and Occupation Changes

We investigate the roles played by agglomeration (proxied by population density) and occupational distribution on postdisplacement employment outcomes for US workers, focusing on the probability of being employed, the likelihood of changing occupations, and the occupational distance between the old and new occupations (where occupational distance is defined as the difference in job tasks between two occupations). Overall, we find that the local occupational distribution has a greater impact on our outcome variables compared with our agglomeration measure. Our findings suggest policy makers should look closely at occupational distribution when designing job training programs and proposals for relocation vouchers.

Age and reemployment success after job loss: An integrative model and meta-analysis.

Despite widespread popular concern about what it means to be over 40 and unemployed, little attention has been paid in the literature to clarifying the role of age within the job seeking experience. Extending theory, we propose mechanisms by which chronological age affects job search and reemployment outcomes after job loss. Through a meta-analysis and examination of 2 supplemental datasets, we examine 5 questions: (a) How strong is the relationship between age and reemployment speed? (b) Does age disadvantage individuals with respect to other reemployment outcomes? (c) Is the relationship between age and reemployment outcomes mediated by job search activities? (d) Are these relationships generalizable? and (e) Are these relationships linear or curvilinear? Our findings provide evidence for a negative relationship between age and reemployment status and speed across job search decade, world region, and unemployment rate, with the strength of the negative relationship becoming stronger over age 50. Job search self-efficacy and job search intensity partially mediate the relationship between age and both reemployment status and speed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Will I make it? Self-perceived employability in the unemployed

The literature on career mobility has emphasized the role of perceived employability in handling occupational transitions. Following a multidimensional approach to the concept of perceived employability, this study developed a twosided model to analyse the self-employability perceptions of the unemployed. Combining two dimensions (beliefs relating to the occupational opportunities in the labour market and self-efficacy to intercept these opportunities), the model hypothesized four different profiles of self-perceived employability. The study aimed to verify this model and to explore how the different profiles of self-perceived employability are related to mental health, intention and motives for using employment agencies and reemployment outcomes. The research involved 136 workers who, after losing their job, applied to an employment agency. The study had a four-wave, multi-method design (questionnaire at the first contact with the agency and objective data on reemployment at 3, 6 and 9 months after the first contact). Self-perceived employability profiles were obtained through a two-step cluster analysis based on two variables (job search self-efficacy and perceived reemployment chances). The two-step cluster analysis resulted in a four-cluster structure, confirming the hypothesized model. The analysis showed significant differences between clusters, distress levels, and short- and medium-term employment outcomes: people who evaluate themselves as less employable have higher levels of distress and lower intentions to utilize the agency’s services. The relationship between the employability profile and reemployment at 3, 6 and 9 months shows interesting trends. Our study contributes to the literature on employability, highlighting the relevance of considering different self-perceived employability profiles of unemployed people. Moreover, its suggestions can be useful for career counsellors in profiling workers who are at risk of psychological distress during occupational transitions and who could give up searching for a job.

Home-Ownership, Unemployed's Job Search Behavior and Post-Unemployment Outcomes

Although home-ownership has been shown to restrict geographic labor mobility and to affect job search behavior of unemployed, there is no evidence so far on how it affects their future re-employment outcomes. We use two waves of detailed German survey data of newly unemployed individuals to study the effect of home-ownership on the job search behavior of unemployed and their re-employment outcomes. We show that unemployed who own a home are less willing to move and also less likely to apply for jobs for which one would have to move. However, we do not find any evidence for compensations of their restricted mobility by more intensive (more search channels or applications) or different (more active or informal) search behavior. Furthermore, we find that home-ownership does not seem to harm the employment prospects of the unemployed. Although the re-employment probability in the short-run is slightly lower, we find that after one year home-owning unemployed have found better re-employment jobs, in terms of wages and job satisfaction, than their renting counterparts.

The impact of education on unemployment incidence and re-employment success: Evidence from the U.S. labour market

This study investigates the causal effects of education on individuals' transitions between employment and unemployment, with particular focus on the extent to which education improves re-employment outcomes among unemployed workers. Given that positive correlations between education and labour force transitions are likely to be confounded by the endogeneity of education, we make use of data on compulsory schooling laws and child labour laws as well as conscription risk in the Vietnam War period to create instrumental variables to identify the causal relationships. Results indicate that education significantly increases re-employment rates of the unemployed. Particularly large impacts are found in the neighborhoods of 12 and 16 years of schooling. Evidence on the impact of formal schooling on unemployment incidence is mixed.

Education, Job Search and Re-Employment Outcomes Among the Unemployed

This study assesses the effects of education on both job search intensity and re-employment success for unemployed workers. Given that the positive correlation between education and job search intensity or re-employment success is likely to be confounded by the endogeneity of education, we make use of data on compulsory schooling laws to create instrumental variables to assess the causal effects of education. Based on data from the Labour Force Survey and the Canadian Census, we find that education both significantly increases job search intensity and significantly improves re-employment success for the unemployed. The evidence on job search intensity provides insights into one potential mechanism through which education may increase the probability of re-employment following unemployment.

The Impact of Education on Unemployment Incidence and Re-Employment Success: Evidence from the U.S. Labour Market

This study investigates the causal effects of education on individuals' transitions between employment and unemployment, with particular focus on the extent to which education improves re-employment outcomes among unemployed workers. Given that positive correlations between education and labour force transitions are likely to be confounded by the endogeneity of education, we make use of data on compulsory schooling laws and child labour laws as well as conscription risk in the Vietnam War period to create instrumental variables to identify the causal relationships. Results indicate that education significantly increases re-employment rates of the unemployed. Particularly large impacts are found in the neighborhoods of 12 and 16 years of schooling. Evidence on the impact of formal schooling on unemployment incidence is mixed.

Successful Reemployment Through Resiliency Development

The proposed model in this article seeks to extend the job search literature by considering resiliency as a predictor of job search behavior and reemployment outcomes. In addition, because past research in this area has not expressly considered job search skills, they are included in this model as an additional predictor along with their interaction with resiliency. The importance of resiliency for job seekers is discussed with particular emphasis on young adults, minorities, and relocating spouses/partners. Because resiliency is a state-like variable, suggestions are offered to promote the development of resiliency in job seekers. It is hoped that the theoretical framework proposed in this article and the specific recommendations for resiliency development can positively affect job seekers pursuing reemployment.

Goal orientation, self-regulation strategies, and job-seeking intensity in unemployed adults.

At Time 1 (T1), the authors surveyed 277 unemployed adults using measures of human capital, goal orientation, self-regulation (emotion control, motivation control, work commitment), and job-seeking intensity. At Time 2 (T2), 4 months later, 155 participants indicated their reemployment outcomes in number of job interviews and number of job offers. Using T1 data, the authors tested the predictors of job-seeking intensity and whether self-regulation mediated between goal orientation and job-seeking intensity. Using T1 and T2 data, they tested for predictors of reemployment outcomes and whether job-seeking intensity mediated the relationship between T1 antecedent variables and the reemployment outcomes. Learning goal orientation and self-regulation predicted job-seeking intensity, and self-regulation mediated between learning goal orientation and job-seeking intensity. Job-seeking intensity did not mediate the relationship among human capital, goal orientation, and self-regulation variables and reemployment outcomes.