Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics n° 503-504 - 2018 Expiry of Unemployment Benefits: What Impact on Post-Unemployment Job Satisfaction?

Back to the article

A number of empirical studies conducted both in France and abroad have observed a surge in finding jobs as people come towards the end of unemployment benefit entitlements. This may be interpreted as a manifestation of the increasing intensity of job searches as they near the end of their entitlements, or as the fact that unemployed people resign themselves to accepting jobs that they would not have taken during the benefits entitlement period. Does job satisfaction differ according to whether a job was found before or after the expiry of benefit entitlements?

This analysis exploits the discontinuity created by the end of unemployment benefit entitlements by comparing job satisfaction depending on whether the job was found just before (in the one-and-a-half month) or just after the end of entitlements. It is based on the Parcours des demandeurs d’emploi indemnisés survey, conducted in 2013 by Pôle emploi among job-seekers registered from July 2012 to February 2013 and receiving unemployment benefits. The analysis is mainly based on the estimation of a panel data fixed effects linear regression model (within model).

Satisfaction with jobs found after the end of entitlements is lower than with those found beforehand; for jobs found near the expiry of entitlements, it is lower if unemployment has significantly reduced consumer spending. These results, however, can only be interpreted as correlations and not as causal relationships. They do not enable us to state that an increase in the maximum duration of benefits would lead to an increase in satisfaction with post-unemployment jobs.