The Effects of Raising the Number of Caseworkers for the Unemployed. Evidence from a Randomised Controlled Trial of the AMS Austria in the Service Zone of the Regional AMS Office Linz

Counselling and placement of the unemployed is one of the core tasks of the AMS. As a recent pilot project shows, jobseekers can be assisted in returning to paid work the more successfully the less clients a caseworker has to look after. By means of an innovative, randomised controlled trial, AMS tested in 2015 and 2016 an intensification of the counselling and placement activities through an increase of the staff. WIFO's evaluation of the counselling zone of the regional AMS office Linz – one of two pilot locations – shows that lower caseloads for caseworkers result in more frequent contacts between caseworkers and clients, more referral proposals, more programme assignments and sanctions, thereby significantly shortening unemployment. This reduction in unemployment is partly due to more frequent employment take-ups and partly to more withdrawals from the labour market.