Road to employment

Living Lab 3 about the “Road to employment” targets women without a job and without welfare benefits.

In the Netherlands, more than 1 million women have no paid job and do not receive welfare benefits. This is presumably a diverse group, consisting for example of women whose partner has sufficient income, women who (still) live at their parents’, or women who work in a family business. So far, there is only limited and fragmented information about who these women are and what their reasons are to remain out of the labor force (for example: caring for small children, health reasons, informal care duties). Since these women are economically vulnerable and the labor potential of these women is desperately very much needed, it is important to investigate what boosts and barriers these women face on their way to work.

With this project, we gain insight into who these women are and at what points during their life course these women have no job and do not receive welfare benefits. Furthermore, a large-scale survey is used to gain insight into reasons why these women do not work or receive welfare benefits. What motivations, opportunities and abilities stimulate or hinder them to participate in paid work? Importantly, we do not solely focus on the characteristics of women themselves, but also on environmental factors. Based on these insights, interventions are developed and tested to remove some barriers and create boosts for the different subgroups of women to engage in paid work.