Using the Unemployed as Temporary Employment Counsellors: Evaluation of an Initiative to Combat Long- Term Unemployment

This study investigates empirically the effects of a pilot project in which unemployed persons were used as temporary employment counsellors. Economic theory clearly points in the direction of a positive relation between search intensity and exit from unemployment. The fundamental concept of the project was the use of unemployed, who underwent customised training, to assist other unemployed in their job search. The project was carried out during a period in which the caseload was very high at public employment offices, which resulted in a drastic reduction in individual placement services available to the unemployed. It was based on a collaboration agreement between trade union confederations and the Swedish Labour Market Administration. Based on individual records drawn from administrative data, this paper examines the impact of the project on the probability of being removed from the live register of the Employment Service (various reasons for being removed are analysed separately) or being placed in a labour market policy programme. For job seekers placed in such programmes, the evaluation also examines effects on the probability of gaining employment within a given time period subsequent to programme participation. The impact on the period of time from the start of the project until a job seeker is removed from the register or placed in a labour market policy programme is also examined. The estimated effects indicate that the project had a positive impact on job search effectiveness and, thereby, in its efforts to reduce long periods out of work.