Arbetslösheten i Sverige är i dag högre än på flera år. Ungdomar är en av de grupper med störst andel arbetslösa. Tidigare studier har visat att när en person känner att den har svårt att få ett arbete kan person motivation att söka arbete minska. Även längden på arbetslöshetsperioden påverkar motivationen. Arbetsförmedlingen har som uppgift, bland annat att kontrollera att arbetslösa ungdomar följer sina uppgjorda handlingsplaner, men också att motivera de arbetssökande. Syftet med denna studie (n=132) är att undersöka hur de arbetssökande ungdomarna anser sig bli motiverade, trots arbetsförmedlarnas dubbla roller. Studien visade att bemötande, engagerande och tilltro till den arbetssökandes förmåga att få ett arbete var mest betydelsefullt för ungdomarnas motivation att söka arbete.

I denna uppsats undersöks samspelet mellan ersättningsnivå i arbetslöshetsförsäkringen och investeringar i aktiv arbetsmarknadspolitik och hur detta är kopplat till arbetsvilja i ett urval om 21 länder. Metoden som används är en beskrivning av arbetsmarknadspolitik i olika länder samt analys baserad på flernivåregression. Data är hämtad från ISSP och OECD. Uppsatsens slutsats är att en hög arbetsvilja har en tydlig koppling till ett lands kombination av arbetsmarknadspolitik och att denna koppling antar olika former med samspelet mellan ersättningsnivå i arbetslöshetsförsäkringen och ett lands investeringar i aktiv arbetsmarknadspolitik. Detta är relevant för diskussionen om hur välfärdsstaten kan överleva på längre sikt genom motverkande av de negativa incitament som skapas av vissa av dess beståndsdelar.

Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala universitet, 2002. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Includes bibliographical references.

Abstract The purpose of the study was to gain knowledge about how social workers perceive the underlying factors that may be behind clients’ need of social assistance for longer periods. A qualitative approach has been used and six telephone interviews with social workers from two different municipalities in Stockholm have been performed. The results show that the social workers’ views are that individuals are in need of social assistance because they are unemployed and because they can not speak Swedish, but it also depends on the client's relationship to the social worker and the municipality's employee turnover. The social services can help to prevent clients from being trapped in a long term need of social assistance, for example by clarifying the municipal rules and regulations, by developing and introducing new activities in the municipality and / or by reducing employee turnover and workload. Keywords: social worker, social assistance, unemployment / Sammanfattning Syftet med studien var att få kunskap om hur socialsekreterare ser på de faktorer som kan ligga bakom arbetsföra klienters behov av försörjningsstöd under längre perioder. Kvalitativ metod har använts och sex telefonintervjuer med socialsekreterare från två olika kommuner i Stockholm har genomförts. Informanternas bild är att individer är i behov av försörjningsstöd eftersom de är arbetslösa och på grund av bristande kunskap i svenska, men det kan även bero på klientens relation med socialsekreteraren och kommunens höga personalomsättning. Socialtjänsten kan hjälpa till med att förhindra att klienter fastnar i ett långvarigt behov av försörjningsstöd, exempelvis genom att förtydliga kommunens regler och riktlinjer, genom att utveckla och införa nya insatser i kommunen och/eller genom att minska personalomsättningen och arbetsbelastning. Nyckelord: social worker, social assistance, unemployment

This dissertation contains three chapters in macroeconomics that study the financing and provision of unemployment insurance. The first chapter studies cross-sectional differences in U.S. state provision of unemployment insurance and the distortionary effects of federal unemployment benefit subsidies in a dynamic labor search model. The paper has two main findings. First, differences in the job-separation rate and the job-finding rate within the model can generate the negative correlation between the average benefit provided by a state and the state's unemployment rate, as observed in the data. Secondly, the model shows how the federal subsidization of unemployment benefit extensions in high-unemployment states causes an over-provision of the benefit, which in turn increases the unemployment rate in those states. Because the extensions are federally subsidized, however, the welfare loss due to the distortion is offset by the benefits of redistribution between states. The second chapter studies the optimal government monitoring of job search effort by unemployment insurance recipients. The theoretical model is a labor search economy with imperfectly observable search effort. The government observes a signal that is correlated with job search effort and must decide the threshold level of the signal that determines continued UI eligibility. The results of the numerical analysis show that the government increases this threshold level at each duration of the unemployment spell. Further, an increasing threshold profile can generate a sharp increase and subsequent drop-off in search effort near the expiration of benefits as observed in the data. The third chapter studies the optimal mix of distortionary capital and labor taxes in an altruistic economy. This problem is addressed by solving a dynamic general equilibrium model with production, in which finitely-lived individuals are linked inter-generationally through altruistic preferences. The government is tasked with financing an exogenous stream of government spending by levying distortionary capital and labor income taxes in a way that minimizes welfare loss in the economy. The numerical results show that nearly all government revenue should be raised through the labor income tax. / text

This master’s paper analysis the unemployment rate and its differentiation in regions. The comparison is made with other Baltic states in order to establish the main differences between the magnitude of index and its regional variation. The paper studies how the speed of labour force reallocation between sectors influences the unemployment rate in Lithuania and estimates whether the Lithuanian data cerrespond to the basic principles of the theories explaining unemployment in transitional economics. A thorough examination of the reasons of the level of differentiation was made which covered three stages. Regions, using cluster analysis, were grouped according to four main economic indicators in three years. It was compared how the changes of distribution relate with the changes of the regional unemployment rates. It was analysed how the unemployment rate depends upon the structure of the employed according to economic activities, also identified the basic economic and social factors having influences on the regional unemployment rates. In this research the perspective dynamics of unemployment rate in Lithuania and its regions are foreseen.

No description available.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the relationship between labour market rigidities and unemployment. The thesis does not attempt to undertake surveys, providing instead an overview of the literature and of South African works. The unemployment - labour market rigidity debate is analysed with particular reference to the experiences of European countries belonging the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It appears that while adverse shocks acted in the direction of raising unemployment, they could not account for the considerable heterogeneity or the persistence in unemployment levels across countries. The possibility that labour market institutions or rigidities had a role to play in propagating the effects of adverse shocks on unemployment was then raised, leading to the emergence of a broad consensus that European unemployment has its sources in the interactions of adverse shocks and adverse labour market institutions. Rigidities in the labour market have their source in trade union intransigence and in the legislation governing the labour market. Trade unions in South Africa are strong and in the past have been particularly militant in achieving their objectives of raising members' wages and improving conditions of employment. The regulatory environment in which the South African labour market operates was examined . South Africa's adoption of labour legislation that is very trade union friendly, and that introduces greater inflexibility into the market and affects business's abilities to adapt to change, which is particularly necessary within the context of globalisation, is against the trend observed internationally. The implementation of such legislation seems irresponsible in a country where conservatively 26,4 percent of the economically active population is unemployed. / Thesis (M.Comm.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

No description available.

This thesis is an empirical investigation into the behaviour of regional unemployment, wages and prices for the UK economy over the period 1974-1996. It develops a measure for regional retail prices and regional retail price expectations with which to examine regional price behaviour and to develop a further understanding of the labour market adjustment processes that occur at the regional level. Using regional prices and regional price expectations this thesis produces results which demonstrates a greater consistency with the predictions of regional wage determination models than either aggregate real wage modelling or the use of aggregate prices. The analysis of regional labour markets is developed alongside the dramatic change in regional unemployment relativities that occurred in the UK over the early 1990s and finds support for a clear north-south differential in regional real wage-adjustment processes consistent with contemporary models of wage determination. It is argued that the change in regional unemployment differentials was due to a combination of region-specific price expectational errors and the asymmetric impact of the economic shock. The narrowing of regional unemployment differentials occurred because real wage adjustment was slower in the south than in the north. This thesis suggests that regional price expectations can be modelled as a function of the perceived regional economic climate. Due to the incidence of region-specific shocks and regional asymmetries in the response to such economic shocks, it is argued that aggregate modelling of the UK labour market leads to spurious results on estimated labour market relationships unless regional differences are explicitly modelled. It is argued that regional labour market modelling needs to incorporate a measure of regional prices with which to model the underlying processes.