IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v12y2025i1d10.1057_s41599-025-04943-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring employment readiness for hard-to-place individuals

Author

Listed:
  • Simon Tranberg Bodilsen

    (Aarhus University)

  • Søren Albeck Nielsen

    (Aarhus University)

  • Michael Rosholm

    (Aarhus University
    IZA Institute of Labour Economics)

Abstract

In an era characterized by population aging and economic challenges in welfare states across the world, sustaining these welfare systems requires a large workforce. Many long-term unemployed individuals, receiving social assistance and only marginally attached to the labor market, aspire to work but encounter a labyrinth of obstacles. While various activation programs are available to unemployed individuals, their effectiveness in helping those who have been out of work for an extended period remains uncertain. Integrating these social assistance recipients into the labor market thus remains an unsolved challenge due to various disadvantages, including health-related, social, family, housing, and personal challenges that make it difficult for the group to establish a connection to the labor market. This study introduces the Employment Readiness Indicator Questionnaire (ERIQ), a tool designed to assess individuals’ progress toward employment and evaluate employment readiness among disadvantaged social assistance recipients. ERIQ demonstrates impressive predictive abilities and points towards actionable recommendations by identifying malleable traits, such as social skills, coping strategies, goal orientation, and self-efficacy, that are significantly associated with finding employment. ERIQ emerges as a valuable resource for policymakers and practitioners, advancing the goal of promoting labor market participation for disadvantaged individuals.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Tranberg Bodilsen & Søren Albeck Nielsen & Michael Rosholm, 2025. "Measuring employment readiness for hard-to-place individuals," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-04943-4
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-04943-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-025-04943-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-025-04943-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosholm, Michael & Staghøj, Jonas & Svarer, Michael & Hammer, Bo, 2006. "A Danish Profiling System," Nationaløkonomisk tidsskrift, Nationaløkonomisk Forening, vol. 2006(1), pages 209-229.
    2. Takaya Saito & Marc Rehmsmeier, 2015. "The Precision-Recall Plot Is More Informative than the ROC Plot When Evaluating Binary Classifiers on Imbalanced Datasets," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    3. Wright, Marvin N. & Ziegler, Andreas, 2017. "ranger: A Fast Implementation of Random Forests for High Dimensional Data in C++ and R," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 77(i01).
    4. Ronald W. McQuaid & Colin Lindsay, 2005. "The Concept of Employability," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(2), pages 197-219, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tshering Choki & Alvin Etang, 2025. "Understanding the Challenges and Constraints of Bhutanese Youth in Accessing Employment Opportunities," World Bank Publications - Reports 42646, The World Bank Group.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Luis A Barboza & Shu-Wei Chou-Chen & Paola Vásquez & Yury E García & Juan G Calvo & Hugo G Hidalgo & Fabio Sanchez, 2023. "Assessing dengue fever risk in Costa Rica by using climate variables and machine learning techniques," PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-13, January.
    2. Christopher J Greenwood & George J Youssef & Primrose Letcher & Jacqui A Macdonald & Lauryn J Hagg & Ann Sanson & Jenn Mcintosh & Delyse M Hutchinson & John W Toumbourou & Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz &, 2020. "A comparison of penalised regression methods for informing the selection of predictive markers," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-14, November.
    3. Paul Spoonley, 2008. "Utilising a Demand-led Approach in a Local Labour Market," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 23(1), pages 19-30, February.
    4. Le, Hong Hanh & Viviani, Jean-Laurent, 2018. "Predicting bank failure: An improvement by implementing a machine-learning approach to classical financial ratios," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 16-25.
    5. Bokelmann, Björn & Lessmann, Stefan, 2024. "Improving uplift model evaluation on randomized controlled trial data," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 313(2), pages 691-707.
    6. Joel Podgorski & Oliver Kracht & Luis Araguas-Araguas & Stefan Terzer-Wassmuth & Jodie Miller & Ralf Straub & Rolf Kipfer & Michael Berg, 2024. "Groundwater vulnerability to pollution in Africa’s Sahel region," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 7(5), pages 558-567, May.
    7. João Chang Junior & Fábio Binuesa & Luiz Fernando Caneo & Aida Luiza Ribeiro Turquetto & Elisandra Cristina Trevisan Calvo Arita & Aline Cristina Barbosa & Alfredo Manoel da Silva Fernandes & Evelinda, 2020. "Improving preoperative risk-of-death prediction in surgery congenital heart defects using artificial intelligence model: A pilot study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-21, September.
    8. Arthur De Sá Ferreira & Ney Meziat-Filho & Ana Paula Antunes Ferreira, 2021. "Double threshold receiver operating characteristic plot for three-modal continuous predictors," Computational Statistics, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 2231-2245, September.
    9. Chakravorty, Bhaskar & Arulampalam, Wiji & Bhatiya, Apurav Yash & Imbert, Clément & Rathelot, Roland, 2024. "Can information about jobs improve the effectiveness of vocational training? Experimental evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    10. David Dorn & Florian Schoner & Moritz Seebacher & Lisa Simon & Ludger Woessmann, 2024. "Multidimensional Skills on LinkedIn Profiles: Measuring Human Capital and the Gender Skill Gap," Papers 2409.18638, arXiv.org, revised May 2025.
    11. Albert Stuart Reece & Gary Kenneth Hulse, 2022. "European Epidemiological Patterns of Cannabis- and Substance-Related Congenital Neurological Anomalies: Geospatiotemporal and Causal Inferential Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-35, December.
    12. Miguel Baião Santos, 2010. "Inserção no Mercado de Trabalho e Formação Profissional - Guia Teórico para Decisores," Working Papers wp052010, SOCIUS, Research Centre in Economic and Organisational Sociology at the School of Economics and Management (ISEG) of the University of Lisbon.
    13. Foutzopoulos, Giorgos & Pandis, Nikolaos & Tsagris, Michail, 2024. "Predicting full retirement attainment of NBA players," MPRA Paper 121540, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Sciences, Research Coach in Social & Dinh, Ngoan-Thi & Hiep, Pham Hung, 2019. "Examining Fresh Graduates’ Perception of Employability in the Information Technology Industry in Vietnam," OSF Preprints 32ghv, Center for Open Science.
    15. Lucia Mýtna Kureková, 2014. "Review of Profiling Systems, Categorization of Jobseekers and Calculation of Unit Service Costs in Employment Services - Implications and Applications for Slovakia," Research Reports 8, Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI).
    16. Niels Haldrup & Peter Møllgaard & Claus Kastberg Nielsen, 2008. "Sequential Versus Simultaneous Market Delineation: The Relevant Antitrust Market For Salmon," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(3), pages 893-913.
    17. Philip J. O’Connell & Seamus Mcguinness & Elish Kelly, 2012. "The Transition from Short- to Long-Term Unemployment: A Statistical Profiling Model for Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 43(1), pages 135-164.
    18. Van Belle, Jente & Guns, Tias & Verbeke, Wouter, 2021. "Using shared sell-through data to forecast wholesaler demand in multi-echelon supply chains," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 288(2), pages 466-479.
    19. Philipp Bach & Victor Chernozhukov & Malte S. Kurz & Martin Spindler & Sven Klaassen, 2021. "DoubleML -- An Object-Oriented Implementation of Double Machine Learning in R," Papers 2103.09603, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2024.
    20. Masabho P Milali & Samson S Kiware & Nicodem J Govella & Fredros Okumu & Naveen Bansal & Serdar Bozdag & Jacques D Charlwood & Marta F Maia & Sheila B Ogoma & Floyd E Dowell & George F Corliss & Maggy, 2020. "An autoencoder and artificial neural network-based method to estimate parity status of wild mosquitoes from near-infrared spectra," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, June.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J60 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - General
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-04943-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.