Job search requirements for older unemployed workers : how do they affect re-employment rates and flows into states of inactivity for older unemployed workers?

Many OECD countries have, or have had, a policy that exempts older unemployed people from the requirement to search for a job. An aging population and low participation by older workers in the labor market increasingly place public finances under strain, and spur calls for policy measures that activate labor force participation by older workers. Introducing job search requirements for the older unemployed aims to increase their re-employment rates. Abolishing the exemption from job search requirements for these workers has been shown to initiate higher outflow rates from unemployment for the older unemployed.