JobsPlus evaluation

Abstract

The aim of this evaluation is to provide evidence on the effectiveness of JobsPlus, a financial incentive launched in 2013 and consisting of employment subsidies for long-term unemployed. The JobsPlus scheme provides two treatment types: a subsidy of euro 7,500 for employees who had been unemployed for between one and two years, and a subsidy of euro 10,000 for employees who had been unemployed for more than two years. This analysis covers entrants from the scheme inception in July 2013 to April 2016. The effect of JobsPlus is estimated separately for the two types of subsidy exploiting the detailed information on unemployed past working histories, available in the Jobseekers Longitudinal Dataset (JLD) administrative database, applying a matching approach. The results point to a positive impact of the subsidy on JobsPlus participants who, after the programme, are less likely to be in receipt of unemployment-related benefits and show a higher probability to earn more and to work for more weeks in a year. For those we can observe over the longest duration subsequent to their JobsPlus start (four years), the difference between the two groups in their probability of receiving unemployment benefits is between 11.1 percentage points (unemployed for at least one year) and 16.4 percentage points (unemployed for at least two years).