Mit der vor fünf Jahren in Kraft getretenen Hartz- IV-Reform waren große Erwartungen verbunden. Tatsächlich ist im letzten Aufschwung die Zahl der arbeitslosen Hartz-IV-Bezieher kräftig gesunken. In den vorhergehenden Konjunkturzyklen hatte der Bestand derjenigen Arbeitslosen, die staatliche...

In der jüngsten Krise wurde so stark wie nie zuvor mit Kurzarbeit auf rezessionsbedingte Arbeitsausfälle reagiert. Das hat den Anstieg der Arbeitslosigkeit in Grenzen gehalten. Inzwischen ist die Zahl der Kurzarbeiter deutlich zurückgegangen: Seit ihrem Höhepunkt im Frühjahr 2009 hat sie...

I assess the short-term impact of a public employment program on child labor and school attendance in Argentina. Public employment increases opportunities for adults outside the household, and may correspondingly raise the returns to children's productive activities at home. The effect of public...

Ukraine's economy lacks dynamism, and this is both the cause and the effect of people not moving across the regions. The rate at which Ukrainians move from one region to another within the country is only half of what would be expected in comparison with other countries. This paper examines the...

This review discusses empirical studies on hiring subsidies in the private sector and on schemes directly providing usually public or non-profit sector jobs for the unemployed in Germany. An important effect of hiring subsidies is that they stabilise employment. For employment schemes, results...

Unemployment increased drastically over the course of the Great Recession from 4.5 percent prior to the recession to 10 percent at its peak in October 2009. Since then, the unemployment rate has come down steadily, and it stood at 5.8 percent in November 2014. Based on existing analyses and some...

Activation policies aimed at getting working-age people off benefits and into work have become a buzzword in labour market policies. Yet they are defined and implemented differently across OECD countries, and their success rates vary too. The Great Recession has posed a severe stress test for...

This paper analyses the main features and determinants of labour market reforms in the EU over the period of 2000 - 2011 using the European Commission LABREF database. The data suggests that the timing, focus, and geographical distribution of reforms reflect the interplay between economic shocks...

Employment rates among senior workers (aged 55 or over) in southern Europe are among the lowest in OECD economies. Spain is a paradigmatic example, with high unemployment rates and very low workforce reentry rates for unemployed workers. Poor demand is typically blamed for this problem, but the...

Since the economic crisis in 2008, European youth unemployment rates have been persistently high at around 20% on average. The majority of European countries spends significant resources each year on active labor market programs (ALMP) with the aim of improving the integration prospects of...