Study supporting the evaluation of the council recommendation on the integration of long-term unemployed into the labour market

Ramboll, SEOR and WIIW have carried out an external study to support the evaluation of the actions taken in response to the Council Recommendation on the integration of the long-term unemployed into the labour market (the Recommendation), as requested by Article 14 of the same Recommendation.

The study covers actions undertaken in Members States and by the Commission in response to the Recommendation. It assesses the extent to which the general and specific objectives have been realised, tracking the activities implemented, outputs reached, and results achieved. The evaluation criteria effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and EU added value are addressed, in line with the Better Regulation Guidelines of the European Commission.

The study provides an assessment of the extent to which the Recommendation contributed to:

• an increase in coverage – increased registration of long-term unemployed individuals with Public Employment Services in Member States;
• an improved continuity and coordination between relevant services, including by identifying a single point of contact (SPOC) in charge of coordinating support;
• an improved effectiveness of interventions towards both long term unemployed and employers.

To this end, the Recommendation proposed concrete measures in four main policy areas: (1) coverage of registration; (2) individualised support to long-term unemployed; (3) inter-institutional coordination; and (4) cooperation with employers. The study has assessed whether and how the measures provided in the Recommendation have translated into new policies and practices (or planned changes) in Member States.

The study was carried out using a mixed-methods approach, using both qualitative and quantitative data to assess and explore whether the Recommendation led to the expected results and impacts. SEOR contributed to the study by collecting and analysing the quantitative data, which was used in both the full report and Annex 6: Integration of secondary data.