Job entry and the ways out of benefit receipt of young adults in Germany

"The study explores the way out of benefit receipt by labour market integration of young adults in Germany. Under 25-year-olds are a target group of the German social policy. If they rely on the payment of social benefits a prompt integration into employment or training is the main priority. The aim is to prevent young people from long-term benefit dependency. The causes of long-term benefit receipt can be discussed from different perspectives: Based on diverse labour market theories, poor perspectives of young benefit recipients can depend on low labour market opportunities. But in the political and public discourse in Germany, long-term benefit receipt of young adults is mostly regarded as the consequence of young people's low labour supply and resignation in benefit dependency. The article examines the chances to leave benefit dependency by labour market integration of about 650 18- to 24-year-old benefit recipients in 2005. The analysis is based on the survey 'Life Circumstances and Social Security 2005' of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Germany and on longitudinal register data of the Federal Employment Agency for three years, 2005 to 2007. The analyses show that most young benefit recipients enter a job or training during the observed period of time; though in many cases young adults keep on receiving benefits. Long-term benefit dependency is predominantly a matter of poor job prospects of low qualified young people and young single parents. But there is no evidence that ongoing benefit claims may go hand in hand with young people's poor labour supply." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))