This volume provides an up-to-date overview of activation strategies in unemployment benefit systems and social assistance in selected European countries and the United States. A particular focus lies on the development of activation schemes, governance and implementation as well as on the outcomes of activation in terms of labor market and social integration. The volume is the first to address these issues both from a socio-economic and a legal perspective.

"Years after the Great Recession, the economy is still weak, and an unprecedented number of workers have sunk into long spells of unemployment, increasingly unlikely to get another good job in their lifetimes. Based on a careful crossnational comparison, "Cut Loose" describes the experiences of American and Canadian unemployed workers and the impact of the different social policies meant to help them. It focuses on a historically important group: autoworkers. Their well-paid factory jobs built a strong middle class in the decades after World War II. But today, they find themselves lost and beleaguered in a changed economy of greater inequality and risk, one that favors the well-educated--or well-connected. Their declining fortunes tell us something about what the white-collar workforce should expect in the years ahead, as job-killing technologies and the shipping of work overseas take away even more good jobs. Their frustrating experiences with retraining question whether education is really the cure-all it is made out to be. And their grim prospects in the job market reveal today's frenzied competition and harsh culture of judgment that has trickled down to a group long known for its strong belief in equality. "Cut Loose" provides a poignant look at how the long-term unemployed struggle in today's unfair economy to support their families, rebuild their lives, and cope with shame and self-blame. Yet it is also a call to action--a blueprint for a new kind of politics, one that offers a measure of grace in a society of ruthless advancement."--Provided by publisher.

Presenting a radically different view of the operations of the labor market, in this 1999 book Professors Pryor and Schaffer explain the growing inequality in wages and how those with the least education are being squeezed out of the labor market. Why have wages in those jobs requiring extra-high cognitive skills risen while all other wages have stagnated or fallen? And why are more university graduates taking high-school jobs? The authors of this volume present data revealing that jobs which require a high educational level are increasing more slowly than those with somewhat lower requirements. However such jobs are increasing faster than those requiring still less formal education. Professors Pryor and Schaffer also show how women are replacing men in jobs which require higher levels of education and, moreover, how those with high cognitive skills are replacing those with lower cognitive skills.