Unemployment has been an understandable concern throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with governments not only striving to ensure people don’t lose their jobs to begin with but also working to help them back into work as quickly as possible again should they face redundancy.

New research from the University of Cologne highlights the important role caseworkers at the employment office play in helping people back into work.  The researchers examined Swiss unemployment data from 2010 to 2012 to understand the level of personal interaction between caseworkers and unemployed individuals, and what impact this has on the success of attempts to find work again.

The analysis revealed that the duration of unemployment seemed heavily influenced by the committed support from the employment office.

Helped to recover

The research found that the caseworkers were helping the unemployed to reintegrate into the labor market in a number of ways, such that their absence for whatever reason was severely felt.  Indeed, a solitary missed meeting between the caseworker and their client resulted in an elongation of the unemployment spell for that individual of around 5%.

Of course, not all caseworkers are created equally, and some were decidedly better than others in terms of the speed with which they were able to get their charges back into work.  This meant that the absence of the least productive caseworkers was perhaps unsurprisingly nowhere near as damaging as the absence of the most productive.  If an individual is fortunate enough to have a great caseworker it can make a tremendous difference, as typified by the fact that a single missed appointment was found to extend their unemployment period by an incredible 13%.

With so many people facing unemployment in this COVID-era, it would appear more vital than ever before that governments ensure they are well supported in their attempts to get back into the workforce.  The cost of not doing so will be grave indeed.