Social insurance and protection programs provide people with income to sustain their consumption when they have no income from work. However, such income replacement schemes can discourage job search, and therefore increase unemployment. This is the reason why most unemployment insurance programs and some welfare programs require beneficiaries to search for jobs in order to continue receiving benefits. In some cases, job search requirements are accompanied by job search assistance, which can take many forms. Typically, counselors explain how to search for jobs, help job-seekers to write resumes, and direct them to vacancies for which they are qualified.

Does job search monitoring and assistance reduce unemployment? Does it speed up the return to work?

While it may seem intuitive that job search monitoring and assistance should increase the rate at which recipients return to work, several adverse effects need to be considered. In particular, pushing workers to find a job quickly can encourage them to take low quality jobs, e.g. jobs with lower pay or lower duration. Furthermore, increased job search by some unemployed persons can increase competition for jobs, thereby decreasing the job finding rate of other unemployed workers. In summary, while job search monitoring and assistance can help reduce unemployment duration, it also has perverse effects that must be taken into account.

While more evidence is needed on the usefulness of job search assistance alone, multiple studies have shown that job search monitoring does increase job finding. Studies are particularly convincing in showing that a complete absence of monitoring decreases job finding: when people’s job search is not monitored at all, they are less likely to find a job. Just having to regularly report being unemployed, without reporting any specific job search efforts, is enough to stimulate job finding.
 

To find out whether job search requirements and job search assistance help the unemployed find better jobs faster, read Ioana E. Marinescu's full article Job search monitoring and assistance for the unemployed.

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Read further articles on unemployment:
 

• Should unemployment insurance cover partial unemployment? (Deutsch) by 
  Susanne Ek Spector

• Unemployment benefits and unemployment (Deutsch) by Robert Moffitt

• Tuning unemployment insurance to the business cycle (Deutsch) by Torben M. Andersen

• Unemployment and happiness (Deutsch) by Rainer Winkelmann

• Does unemployment insurance offer incentives to take jobs in the formal sector? (Deutsch) by Mariano Bosch

Read related commentaries:
 

• Will punishing the unemployed cure unemployment? by Ioana E. Marinescu

• Reducing unemployment is always on the government agenda by Thorsten Schank

• 6 key points on European youth unemployment by Werner Eichhorst

• Youth unemployment – evidence-based policy advice in Spain by Werner Eichhorst

• Tackling youth unemployment by Klaus F. Zimmermann

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Douglas Webber from Temple University discusses whether the return to education is the same for everyone:

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