Assessing youth labour market services: Young people’s perceptions and evaluations of service delivery in Germany

Abstract

While youth unemployment is a widely studied topic, many accounts fail to take into consideration young adults’ experiences with and perceptions of the public services they make use of. Young people’s perceptions of the services they use are closely linked to a variety of behaviours such as noncompliance, early withdrawal or non-take-up, all of which can hinder the (re-)entry to the labour market. How young people evaluate their interactions with employment services can even have impacts on societal and political attitudes; as for many young people, these experiences represent their first interactions with the state. In this study, we draw on unique survey data to offer insights into young adults’ evaluations and experiences with public employment services in Germany and discuss them in light of the structure and organizational capacity of public employment services to deliver the programmes and services that young adults need. By placing the analytical focus on young people’s evaluations, we argue that although Germany is often highlighted as a highly successful case in terms of youth labour market outcomes; there is nevertheless ample room for improvement in terms of how young people assess the offerings and personal experiences with public employment services.

The Effect of Unemployment and Low-Quality Work Conditions on Work Values: Exploring the Experiences of Young Europeans

“…Structural changes within the labor market-including increased flexibility, high levels of unemployment, rising educational attainment levels, the changing nature of work itself (e.g., technological modernization and employment precarity), and the 2008 economic crisis-have all had a significant impact on the ways in which people experience work (Cahuc et al 2013;O'Reilly et al 2015). These developments have had the most profound impact on those entering the labor market-the young (Dietrich 2012;Shore and Tosun 2017). Even though unemployment levels have recovered in many European countries after the crisis, youth unemployment levels remain stubbornly high (Cahuc et al 2013;Oesingmann 2017;Tosun 2017).…”

“…The transition to the first sustainable job remains a critical and formative period that has consequences for the life chances of young people (Arnett 2000;and Ryan, 2001). Unemployment experience during this time increases the likelihood of being unemployed later in life, can decrease future salaries, send a negative signal to future employers, and lead to a loss in social networks and opportunity to develop important skills with a labor market currency (Dietrich 2012;Shore and Tosun 2017). Experience of unemployment during this formative time can directly influence young people's work values (Chow et al, 2014;Gallie;Kalleberg and Marsden, this volume).…”

Perceived economic self-sufficiency: a country- and generation-comparative approach

“…Mühlböck et al 2017;Dvouletý et al 2018). The dataset has variables relating to the health status of the respondents Utzet 2017, 2018) as well as their experiences using public services when searching for employment (see Shore and Tosun 2017). Rather unusual for a dataset in political science, it also contains information on parenting style (with a view towards better understanding the intergenerational transmission of values and resources; see Warmuth et al 2015) and concepts related to personality and grit (see Arco-Tirado et al 2018).…”

Youth employment in Europe: Coordination as a crucial dimension

“…The second part of this collection comprises four articles that investigate attitudes towards coordinated welfare policies. Policies may be well designed, but if they are not accepted by their target audiences they may still fail to attain their goals (Shore & Tosun, 2019). Moreover, unpopular policies may reduce the politicians' prospect for re-election (Béland, 2005;Bonoli, 2012;Wenzelburger & Hörisch, 2016).…”