Arbeitslosigkeit und Stellenannahmebereitschaft: Erste Ergebnisse eines Faktoriellen Survey Moduls

Matching individuals to jobs is a fundamental problem in any labour market. This paper focuses on job characteristics, such as wages, job quality, and distance from the current place of residence, and the impact of these characteristics on the willingness of employed and unemployed individuals to accept new job offers. Using an experimental factorial survey module (FSM) implemented in the fifth wave of a large population survey (Panel Study Labour Market and Social Security), the willingness of employed and unemployed labour market participants to accept new job offers was compared while considering job characteristics like gain of income or commuting distance. In this study, unemployed and employed individuals received the same set of hypothetical job offers. Consistent with theoretical arguments, the about 20,000 evaluations provided by about 4,000 respondents showed that unemployed participants generally exhibit a greater willingness to accept new job offers than employed ones. Moreover, unemployed individuals were likely to make more concessions than employed individuals with respect to job quality, such as accepting fixed-term job offers. Interestingly, little evidence for different decision-making or weightings of mobility costs was found, which enables us to conclude that interregional unemployment disparities can scarcely be explained by unemployed individuals lacking the willingness to work or relocate

Stärken und Schwächen integrierter und spezialisierter Modelle der Kundenbetreuung im SGB II

Mit der Einführung des SGB II im Jahr 2005 hat der Gesetzgeber den Grundsicherungsstellen große Spielräume bei der Ausgestaltung zentraler Leistungsprozesse eingeräumt. Das SGB II hat nicht nur zu einem Wettbewerb zwischen Arbeitsgemeinschaften und zugelassenen kommunalen Trägern geführt, sondern auch unterschiedliche Organisationsmodelle der Kundenbetreuung hervorgebracht. Diese unterscheiden sich insbesondere darin, ob und in welchem Maße zentrale Elemente des Leistungsprozesses integriert von einer Person (“aus einer Hand“) oder spezialisiert erbracht werden. Der vorliegende Beitrag bringt auf der Grundlage einer standardisierten Panelbefragung aller Grundsicherungsstellen erstmals repräsentativ Licht in die “black box“ der organisatorischen Umsetzung der Kundenbetreuung im SGB II und diskutiert mögliche Stärken und Schwächen der verschiedenen Varianten.   Strengths and Weaknesses of Integrated and Specialized Models of Customer Service in Germany's Centres for Basic Social Security Introducing a new basic social security system for job seekers in the year 2005, German legislation has given a lot of leeway to the newly founded centres for basic social security with respect to the organization of central elements of customer service. Hence, the new system has not only led to competition between a co-operative model between local employment agencies and local authorities and an overall responsibility of municipalities for service provision, but also between very different organizational models for customer support. Case management, placement and the provision of financial benefits may either be carried out in an integrated way by one person or in a specialised manner by several people. Based upon an elaborate standardized panel survey, this article analyses the organization of central elements of customer service. Moreover, strengths and weaknesses of integrated and specialized models of customer service organization are discussed