The labour market impacts of a youth guarantee: lessons for Europe?

Abstract

This paper examines the youth guarantee programme introduced in Finland 2005. The reform consisted of early intervention, monitoring and individualized job search plans that guarantee activation measures for unemployed young persons. Using the age threshold set at 25 years, we find that the youth guarantee moderately increased unsubsidized employment while having a negligible impact on unemployment in the age range of 23-24. We also show that the positive impacts of the youth guarantee only materialize among unemployed young persons with a vocational education. There are no signs that the guarantee improved the labour market prospects of young uneducated people.