Hiring subsidies are widely used to create (stable) employment for the long-term unemployed. This paper exploits the abolition of a hiring subsidy targeted at long-term unemployed jobseekers over 45 years of age in Belgium to evaluate its effectiveness in the short and medium run. Based on a...

Hiring subsidies are widely used to create (stable) employment for the long-term unemployed. This paper exploits the abolition of a hiring subsidy targeted at long-term unemployed jobseekers over 45 years of age in Belgium to evaluate its effectiveness in the short and medium run. Based on a...

Profiling tools help to deliver employment services more efficiently. They can ensure that more costly, intensive services are targeted at jobseekers most at risk of becoming long term unemployed. Moreover, the detailed information on the employment barriers facing jobseekers obtained through...

Statistical models can help public employment services to identify factors associated with long-term unemployment and to identify at-risk groups. Such profiling models will likely become more prominent as increasing availability of big data combined with new machine learning techniques improve...

This paper compares the effects of three policies that aim at fighting the low-skill unemployment problem in Belgium: reductions in employers?' social security contributions, hiring subsidies and in-work benefits. From evaluation studies and our analysis of the causes of unemployment in Belgium,...