The Swedish Activity Guarantee

Until recently, an unemployed person in Sweden who participated in an active labour market programme earned entitlement to a further 60 weeks of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. A "carousel" effect - cycling between periods of open unemployment and participation in active programmes - increasingly seen came to be seen as a factor making the active programmes less effective in promoting the transition to ordinary work. Following policy reforms in 2000 and 2001, participation in a programme no longer generates new UI entitlements. However, the public employment service (PES) can refer the unemployed to a new programme, the Activity Guarantee. This provides continuing income support, and engages participants in job-search and other activities in principle full-time until they find ordinary work. This paper summarises findings from two questionnaire surveys of the implementation of the Activity Guarantee. The first survey was addressed to PES case workers, who have direct ...