Opportunities and limitations of successful labour market integration of the long-term unemployed

Combating long-term unemployment is a central task of the active labour market policy. Despite a wide range of established instruments and forms of support, there are clear limits to the success of permanently integrating long-term unemployed people into the labour market. This is the starting point for the present study, which aims to investigate the opportunities as well as the limitations of successfully integrating the long-term unemployed into the labour market.

A first point of interest is analysing the structure of long-term unemployment. On this basis, a typology of long-term unemployed people is to be defined, by considering their specific issues, previous careers as well as the general framework conditions. Subsequently, forms of support, instruments and select support chains are examined with regard to their impact on the integration of long-term
unemployed people into the labour market. The perspective of companies is too taken into account within the framework of the current analysis. Specifically, the focus lies on exploring the contribution of companies to the labour market integration of long-term unemployed persons as well as to the prevention of the transition to long-term unemployment.

A multi-level design is used for the present study:

• In a first step, a structural and longitudinal analysis of secondary data is carried out with focus on the group of long-term unemployed people in 2022.
• Based on this, a survey of long-term unemployed persons will be conducted by means of a representative quota-controlled online survey supplemented by a telephone survey.
• The entire database is first subjected to a descriptive typifying analysis of the causes, backgrounds and issues of long-term unemployment and then examined by using the multivariate statistical model of logistic regression with regard to key factors influencing the labour market integration of the long-term unemployed.
• At the same time, a survey of HR managers in companies (focus on AMS clients) will be conducted by means of a representative online survey in order to identify experiences and strategies regarding the employment of the long-term unemployed.

On the basis of all analysis steps, the study aims to shed light on the limitations that long-term unemployed persons must face upon (re-)entering the labour market, but at the same time also to point out new prospects for their labour market integration.

Information on the survey of AMS customers

Survey period: June to August 2024

Type of survey: Closed survey by invitation only, conducted online via LimeSurvey

Duration of the survey: approx. 15 minutes

Data transfer: The contact data was provided by AMS Austria to L&R Social Research exclusively for the purpose of this study.

Data use: The data is analyzed statistically anonymously by L&R Social Research. The results are used for basic research.

Rights: Participation in the survey is voluntary. Invitees can unsubscribe or have their data deleted upon request at any time without giving reasons.

Contact persons:

L&R Social Research: Flavia Enengl (enengl@lrsocialresearch.at, +43 1 595 4040 11) and Daniela Hosner (hosner@lrsocialresearch.at; +43 1 595 4040 12);

AMS Austria: Johanna Blum (johanna.blum@ams.at; +43 50 904 151 106) and Claudia Felix (claudia.felix@ams.at; +43 50 904 163 106).