Sickness absence in a re-employment program as a predictor of labor market attachment among long-term unemployed individuals: A 6-year cohort study in Finland

Abstract

Objectives We examined whether sickness absence during participation in a state subsidized re-employment program among long-term unemployed people was associated with subsequent labor market attachment. Methods We linked 18 944 long-term unemployed participants (aged 18-60 years) of a six-month subsidized re-employment program in Finland to their records of sickness absence during the program and labor market status after the program. We used the latent class growth model to identify labor market attachment trajectories over a six-year follow-up period and multinomial logistic regression to investigate the association between sickness absence and labor market attachment trajectories. Results We identified four labor market attachment trajectories: "strengthening", (77%), "delayed" (6%), "leavers" (10%), and "non-attached" (7%). Sickness absence was associated with an increased risk of belonging to the leavers and non-attached trajectories. Having >30 days of sickness absence during the six-month re-employment program increased the risk for belonging to the future non-attached trajectory in all age groups, but in particular for those aged 30-44 [odds ratio (OR) 7.35, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.85-11.14] and 18-29 years (OR 5.38, 95%CI 3.76-7.69). At these ages, having fewer than 30 days sickness absences was also associated with an elevated risk of belonging to the non-attached trajectory, while this risk was lower for those aged 45-60. Conclusions Sickness absence during participation in a subsidized re-employment program increased the risk for poor labor market attachment during the subsequent six years. The risk was particularly high among younger participants with >30 days of sickness absence.

Multilevel comprehension for labor market inclusion: a qualitative study on experts' perspectives on Industry 4.0 competences

“…However, in the context of Industry 4.0, prospects on education and training for marginalized individuals and fragile workers (e.g. older workers, Lalé, 2018; migrants, Ala-Mantila and Fleischmann, 2018; unemployed people, Nwavu et al , 2018) appear to be uncertain. Thus, viewing education and training as a means of labor market integration, the context of disruptive technologies opened to new questions on how and to what extent such individuals can be helped to promote their levels of employability and continuing training (Burgess et al , 2013).…”

Does Work Disability Contribute to Trajectories of Work Participation before and after Vocational Labour Market Training for Job Seekers?

“…Declining health status was likely to be the primary factor driving this trajectory amongst those with previous work disability, whereas amongst those without previous work disability, older age and other potential factors played a more important role. Ill-health and work disability were found to contribute to employment trajectories also in the context of another active labour market programme in Finland, i.e., a subsidised employment programme amongst the long-term unemployed; chronic diseases and sickness absence during the programme increased the likelihood of belonging in poorer trajectories showing weak or declining employment over the follow-up years after the programme [21,22].…”

“…Work participation trajectories were examined to capture temporal patterns in the level of participation in competitive work over time in relation to vocational training, taking into account that exiting and re-entering work may constitute dynamic processes instead of single events. Work participation trajectories have also been previously examined in studies focusing on outcomes of work-related interventions [21,22,29,31].…”

“…Health issues have, therefore, received special attention with respect to interventions promoting work participation [1,[17][18][19][20]. Previous studies have indicated that health also influences outcomes of interventions that are not primarily health-related, such as in active labour market programmes [21][22][23].…”

Guest editorial “role of training for labour market integration”

“…Workers seeking to re-enter the labour market after a period of absence will suffer skill obsolescence in proportion to the length of time they have not been working and the rate of change of technology. Any period of labour market absence reduces the chances of gaining employment and the longer the absence the more difficult it is to return (Nwavu et al , 2018). For employees seeking work after redundancy, the likelihood of finding a position depends upon local labour market opportunities and institutional support (Gardiner et al , 2009).…”