出版社：Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung
摘要：In Germany, so-called “integration agreements” between labor market agencies and job seekers stipulate placement efforts of the Employment Agency as well as the job search requirements of the job seekers. A pilot project examines the effectiveness of such integration contracts. In this project, random assignment determined what month an unemployed concluded an integration agreement in. As part of the evalua-tion, surveys of caseworkers of the participating agencies have been conducted. This report summarizes key findings of these surveys. Before the start of the project, nearly half of the respondents assessed integration agreements as unhelpful for unemployed individuals who are assessed to be close to the labor market (market profile) or for unemployed assessed as having substantial impediments for reintegration (complex profiles). Hardly controversial was the use of integration agreements, however, for job seekers in need of motivation or qualification. These assessments are reinforced after the start of the project. The caseworkers on average do not regard it as sensible to use integration agreements without any differentiation between the unemployed. A large majority would even prefer to decide case-by-case about the use of an agreement. Whether the effect of the agreement on the integration outcomes indeed differs between unemployed with different profiles will be subject to later research exploiting random assignment within the project. The interviews covered also further aspects of the placement and counseling process. According to caseworkers, the frequency of personal interviews with job seekers differs strongly across unemployed persons with different profiles. Nearly half of respondents assessed the prescribed frequencies as inadequate. More than 90 percent of the placement officers agree with the statement that their work has a strong impact on the integration of job seekers in need of motivational or qualification. In contrast, just 40 or 50 percent of the respondents found this to be the case for the integration of unemployed with market profiles or complex profiles.
