Financial hardship during unemployment in Norway: the impact of public and private income support

It is common to assume that long-term unemployment no longer causes financial hardship because of generous welfare benefits. It is further assumed that unemployment benefits have eroded the traditional role of the family in protecting its members against hazards. This panel study of long-term unemployed people in 1991-1992 demonstrates the inadequacy of unemployment benefits and the importance of family support in reducing the risk of financial hardship. Vulnerable household types, such as single people and families with limited economic resources, at the outset seem unable to bear the personal risk of unemployment that is built into the benefit scheme. Persons disadvantaged at the outset risk a downward spiral because of long-term unemployment. Especially during times of high unemployment, the compensation level is not optimal from a welfare point of view. Greater coverage and more generous unemployment benefits may help unemployed people to cope better financially and thus avoid applying for discretionary and highly stigmatized social assistance allowance.     

Labour market integration of unemployed youth from a life course perspective: the case of Norway

The aim of this article is to analyse the labour market integration of previously unemployed youth in a life course perspective. 'Work, Lifestyle and Health' is a longitudinal panel survey following a sample of nearly 2,000 individuals who are representative of the Norwegian cohorts born between 1965 and 1968. The survey was first conducted in 1985 with follow-ups in 1987, 1989, 1993 and again in 2003. Unemployment among young people does not necessarily lead to marginalisation and social exclusion. Long-term effects will be dependent upon how the youths cope with unemployment, the duration of the unemployment period, their mental health status and educational qualifications. Many young unemployed people are not entitled to unemployment benefits because they lack work experience. Consequently, they are dependent on support from their family and/or social assistance. However, there is still much to learn about the long-term consequences of youth unemployment, e.g. whether or not the youths have received social assistance and what are the long-term consequences for their future labour market career and labour market integration.     

Persistence in entrepreneurship and its implications for the European entrepreneurial promotion policy

By considering entrepreneurs who hire employees – employers – and entrepreneurs without personnel – own-account workers – as related but distinct groups within entrepreneurship, this work analyzes the roles of different factors in entrepreneurship survival in Europe from a new perspective: contrasting the determinants of own-account workers’ survival with those affecting employers’ survival in the EU-15. Our results confirm the presence of persistence in entrepreneurship. However, we also obtain a strong negative effect on survival of entering entrepreneurship from unemployment. Hence, policymakers should balance these mixed results to evaluate the medium- and long-term suitability of the existing entrepreneurial promotion policy across European regions.     

Unemployment, shame and ill health — an exploratory study

Unemployed young people in six Swedish municipalities were studied in respect of the degree of shaming elements experienced by them in their social environment and in respect of mental ill health. The nature of the investigation was exploratory. The study shows that experience of shaming elements in the environment owing to unemployment is relatively frequent. A larger proportion of the long-term unemployed and men account for more shaming elements than do the short-term unemployed and women. It seems as if the factor of shaming elements in the environment is important in order to understand the adverse health-related consequences of unemployment. A greater proportion of those who live in a more shaming environment show mental disorders, deteriorated health, changes in living habits, activities and social relations, than do those living in a less shaming environment. This report discusses possible explanations of the results in the light of existing moral concepts of work and unemployment, as well as of shaming attitudes towards the unemployed.     

个人价值观与社会工作价值观之整合——社工之专业自我的形塑路径初探

每一个社会工作者首先是作为普通的个人而存在的，尔后才逐渐作为专业自我而存在。在长期的社会生活过程中，作为个人而存在的存在者都会基于其所处文化，形成一套自我主动或潜意实施的个人价值观，这将天然地与社会工作之“无差别对待生命”的人本主义价值观存在或多或少的张力或冲突。对此，本文尝试以“拟亲属化”和“主体意识投射”两种手段之架构，来做个人价值观与社会工作价值观之整合的努力，以期探寻一种社工之专业自我的形塑路径。     

Unemployment Insurance in Algeria: Help or Hindrance?

The issue of employment has become a crucial one in Algeria. Not only does the economy no longer offer opportunities for jobseekers; economic reforms have led to countless public-sector businesses being wound up, putting thousands of people out of work. Against this background, a system of temporary unemployment benefits has been introduced, though its effectiveness has been sharply criticized. How many of the occupations targeted by the legislation setting up the system are actually covered by Algeria's unemployment insurance system, and on what terms? What obstacles are there to the full realization of this system's objectives, and how effective is it in an economic and financial sense? The unemployment insurance system is traditionally accused of clogging up the machinery of employment and preventing a return to a competitive labour market. There are also those who believe that this system helps to foster voluntary unemployment and encourages people to spend more time on leisure pursuits. Our article considers all these views. At the end the reader will also find brief details of unemployment insurance in South Africa and Egypt.     

城镇化、农民工就业与经济政策选择

受全球经济危机和国内市场行业不景气的影响,农民工失业问题表现得越来越突出。基于农民工失业的表现与成因,中国发展阶段、城镇化与农民工就业的关系,我国应该实行替代性的发展战略,以解决经济增长与农民工就业的问题。为此,应采取积极措施促进农民工就业。     

Patterns and meaning of unemployment

This article introduces the special issue. Unemployment in Argentina, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain is placed in the context of global economics. The end of full employment in Sweden was part of an international deinstitutionalization that connected employment closely to economic growth. The immediate causes of the economic decline and mass unemployment in Sweden were a financial crash and neoliberal government policies. The ambiguity of unemployment in the criteria for evaluating the performance of policy-makers and three different cultures among unemployed people are outlined. An overview of what is known about the consequences of unemployment in terms of excess illness and mortality is given.     

Unemployment and Health in Sweden: Public Issues and Private Troubles

The unemployment rate for a country seems to reflect unemployment policies rather than economic conditions. Variations in employment rates for selected Western countries are presented as a background for a discussion of unemployment and its individual and societal consequences in Sweden. Unemployment is both a private trouble—where individuals see the possibility of controlling their own lives diminishing, which leads to increased risk for psychological and physiological stress—and a public issue, for increased unemployment is associated with societal vulnerability, social polarization, and the breakdown of community ties, which lead to increased societal stress and increased mortality on the national and the community levels. However, for the large majority of workers, the Swedish welfare system buffers first against unemployment, and second against its negative economic effects. Less than 2% of the workforce are exposed to unemployment, and a minority of the unemployed seem negatively affected by the unemployment experience. An empirical longitudinal study of unemployed blue-collar workers and two employed control groups indicated that a coping orientation involving an attitude of mastery or perceived control buffered against psychological and physiological stress reactions.     

Successful yet insufficient: German policies for higher employment rates among older age groups

In recent years among the OECD countries, Germany has witnessed the largest increase in the employment rates of older people. This increase, and general German employment rates, are associated with both supply side measures in the fields of pensions and unemployment policies and employment promotion policies. Yet, supply side measures and Germany's shift from conservative towards liberal policy goals and policies in the case of older workers have resulted in economic inequality. These policies could be complemented by pro‐employability measures in order to become fully effective. This article describes recent policy reforms in the main policy fields of retirement, unemployment, and employment promotion, considers their effects on employment and inequality, and offers reform suggestions to raise further older worker employment rates without increasing inequality.     

Integrating citizen's income with social insurance

Citizen's income or social dividend schemes are a way of avoiding the "poverty trap", or disincentive effect, inherent in withdrawing unemployment compensation completely when the beneficiary returns to work. If there are inadequate financial incentives for the unemployed to return to work, the benefit administration may feel the need for tighter discipline of the unemployed, threatening to withdraw benefit from those who reject offers of low-paid work. Citizen's income provides better incentives to work without so much need for sanctions. The article explores four different methods of introducing a citizen's income gradually by allowing people to keep an increasing proportion of their benefit as they move from unemployment into work. New transfers would also be made to never-unemployed workers, to secure equity between all persons whatever their employment status or history. The best method is to define an hourly unemployment benefit, and make benefit for a certain number of hours unconditional on employment status. This gives better incentives to work part-time than existing benefit systems, and fairer treatment for those who can only find a part-time job. Minimum wage regulation is important, to prevent employers taking advantage of a citizen's income to reduce wage rates.     

Female Workers on Long-term Sickness Benefit in the Republic of Ireland: The Relevance of their Relationship with the Labour Market

This article investigates the extent to which the entry of female workers into long-term receipt of sickness benefit is related not only to their health status but also to the experience of women in the labour market. It is argued that specific categories of female workers–women with children, women who enter sickness benefit from maternity or unemployment benefit or who live in areas of high female unemployment–have an incentive to remain on sickness benefit long-term. This is supported by a logistic regression analysis on a random sample (n D1142) of individual social security sickness benefit claimants in the Republic of Ireland. The results can be used to understand how married, compared to single, women can come to be overrepresented among those on long-term sickness benefit.     

Unemployment in Poland - causes and remedial measures

This article describes unemployment and labor market policy in Poland after 1989. The analysis is based on official statistics, legislation and Polish social science literature. The unemployment situation in Poland is continually changing. Conclusions drawn by social scientists in 1991 and 1992 no longer give an adequate account of labor market trends in 1995. Steeply rising unemployment is the most traumatic upheaval in post-Communist Polish society. At the end of 1989, the number of people looking for work in Poland was far less than the number of available jobs. But by the end of 1992 there were 62 job-seekers for every job opening, dropping to 56 in September 1994. The social problems associated with unemployment vary from region to region. Women and young people predominate among the unemployed. The Polish government set up a Work Fund in January 1990 to alleviate unemployment. The Work Fund is the first real measure taken to assist the unemployed, but new legislation is needed if it is to become more effective.     

大学生群体对社会工作职业声望评价探析——以四川农业大学本科生为例

为了解社会工作目前的职业声望,本文通过问卷调查了作为社会先进群体的大学生对社工的职业声望评价。调查结果显示,大学生自身所持有的价值观、择业要求会影响对职业的评价,对社工本身的了解程度也是影响因素之一。笔者因此建议通过大力加强社工价值教育,扩大舆论宣传和提高社工福利等措施来提高社工的职业声望。     

Reversing the Negative Experience of Unemployment: A Mediating Role for Social Policies?

This article examines why unemployment is often experienced in a profoundly negative way, and explores the potentially mediating role of social policies. Three dominant theories of unemployment are described, which are often treated as competing, mutually exclusive explanations of the deleterious effects of unemployment. Subsequently, and through drawing upon a qualitative study of unemployed people, it is argued that all three theories are of worth and can be synthesized into a broader explanation of the experience of unemployment as an overarching process of loss. Three forms of loss are identified: loss of agency; loss of the functions of paid work; and loss of social status. The article then explores how these forms of loss can be both ameliorated and intensified through social policy interventions. Concluding, it offers policy recommendations to increase the efficacy of social policies in reversing the negative experience of unemployment, with the conclusion that this will require significant reform of the UK welfare state.     

不确定性防范与城市务工人员主观幸福感：基于反事实框架的研究

本文基于2007年中国家庭收入调查数据,评估了不确定性防范对城市务工人员的影响,并获得了一些重要发现：(1)不同类型的不确定性防范措施对影响居民主观幸福感存在着显著差异,参与养老保险、失业保险和工伤保险能够显著提高城市务工人员主观幸福感,但参与医疗保险对城市务工人员主观幸福感没有显著影响;(2)四种不确定性防范手段对城市务工人员之间主观幸福感差异的总贡献率接近10%,其中参与失业保险的贡献率最大。进一步研究发现,城市务工人员主观幸福感变化符合享乐适应理论,即随着不确定性防范措施的逐步实施推广,城市务工人员的主观幸福感可能会返回到未采取不确定性防范措施前的水平。     

Psychological Weil-Being Among Unemployed and Employed People After a Company Closedown: A Longitudinal Study

In a three-year longitudinal study, we examined the effects of unemployment and the fear of becoming unemployed on the psychological well-being of 1153 employees at a shipyard that was closed down, and a control group of 441 employees from another, operative shipyard. On all three questionnaires, unemployed people were significantly lower in psychological well-being than employed people. Change to or from employment was significantly associated with changes in psychological well-being, whereas remaining employed or unemployed did not lead to any systematic changes in psychological well-being. Among employed people, the fear of unemployment was strongly associated with reduced psychological well-being. Thus, the health-related consequences of unemployment affect not only the unemployed but also employed people who have little job security. Consequently, we stress the need to create new workplaces and to implement reforms that can reduce job insecurity in the labor market.     

Who is Jobless? A Comparison of Joblessness in Rural and Urban Areas in China

Since market‐oriented economic reform was launched in China in the 1980s, unemployment has been recognized by the government. This paper focuses on the differences in joblessness in rural and urban areas between rural migrant workers, peasants, and urban citizens. The results indicate that people in rural areas frequently lose their jobs, which differs from the traditional perception. There is a significantly lower jobless rate in urban areas. In contrast to the results of previous studies, the employment situation of rural migrant workers is closer to urban citizens rather than peasants. Logistic regression results show that the elderly, women, and less educated citizens have a higher likelihood of joblessness, both in urban and rural areas. Minorities have a lower likelihood of joblessness in rural areas and a higher likelihood in urban areas. Chinese Communist Party members and people without dependent children have a lower likelihood of joblessness in urban areas.     

从社工视角探讨失地农民问题

在我国城镇化的进程中,一部分农民因为国家建设征地而失去土地,成为失地农民。失地农民面临"农转非"的生存方式转换,产生了就业难、保障缺乏等一系列问题,而单纯依赖政府的支持与保障来解决失地农民的问题并不足够。本文从社会工作的专业视角出发,探讨社会工作者如何以社会工作特有的专业方法和实务技巧介入解决失地农民的就业安置问题、社会保障问题。