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The submitted thesis examines the issue of unemployment on the labor market by the age structure during the period of 1999-2009. Special attention is devoted to the unemployment of youth and older labor force. The thesis is focused on characterizing chosen age groups and inequalities between youth and older labor force in the labor market. The development of unemployment in selected age groups between 1999-2009 and the influencing factors (such as demographic structure, extending the retirement age, stage of the economic cycle) are also included. The aim of the thesis is to analyze the status development of selected age groups, particularly the status of youth and older labor force in the labor market and factors that influence the development. The main task is to evaluate the employment of youth and older labor force within the economic cycle.

The Swedish welfare state is often conceived as a universal and encompassing welfare state. However, research has shown significant contractions of coverage and benefit levels in several Swedish welfare programs in the last 20 years. One such program is the unemployment insurance. The development has led to occupational insurance through collective agreements and income insurance provided through the unions to become increasingly important for individuals’ income protection in times of unemployment. While previous research has tended to focus on the public welfare provision of unemployment insurance, this thesis seeks to make an empirical and methodological contribution to the study of social policy by investigating the development of complementary unemployment insurance plans and the potential differences it creates in the level and affordability of income protection for different groups of workers. The study is conducted by modeling a set of stylized workers facing different income levels and risk of unemployment to calculate the degree to which the different insurance plans replace former income and the cost of that income protection. The analysis shows that the development of complementary insurance plans has led to differences in the level of income protection due to declining generosity of the public system, which in recent years, however, has to some extent been restored. Moreover, the result suggests that unemployment risk becomes an important factor for the level of income protection and the cost of insurance, especially for workers with lower wage levels with similar risks and for longer durations of unemployment.

The purpose of this study is to examine how different risk factors on the labour market affect an individuals’ perceived unemployment risk and how this perceived risk is affected depending on what country you work in. By comparing countries, a difference can be made on, depending on the countries labour policies and the state of their welfare, how they are affecting your perceived unemployment risk. The countries used in this study are Sweden, Denmark and Poland and the risk factors used are, gender, education level, competence and trade unions. The data for this study is taken from ISSPs surveys and the analysis method used is a bivariate and a multiple regression analysis. The result from the study show that there are differences between the countries perceived unemployment risk and how the risk factors affect this. But, because a lot of the results are non-significant, a general conclusion can’t be done because there is no certainty that the results exist outside of this study. But one thing is certain, that this is a much more complex field were general conclusions are hard to make and that the risk factors needs more and thorough studying and how the individuals perceived unemployment risk affects their mental health.

This thesis deals with motivation of long-term unemployed when looking for a job. It is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part deals with basic overview of theories of motivation and motivation to work. It also defines basic concepts regarding long- term unemployment. In connection with the issue it describes a system of material poverty, unemployment and abuse of social benefits. The final chapter of this section is devoted to a summary of the theoretical part. The practical part of the work contains the results of a research. Qualitative method and semi- structured interviews with beneficiaries in material need were used for data acquisition. The aim of the research is to understand what factors influence the motivation of long-term unemployed when looking for a job and when trying to solve their social situation. Part of this section is the interpretation of the results of the research and its evaluation.

This thesis focuses on the issue of active employment policy as a tool to improve the situation on the labor market. The aim of this thesis is characterize the individual instruments of active employment policy in the South Bohemian Region and propose recommendations, which may lead to its improved interaction. In addition to the active employment policy work focuses on the seriousness of the situation in the application of risk groups in the labor market. Based on the results of the investigation are suggested appropriate measures that would lead to greater efficiency in the application of these tools.