Lone mothers' participation in labor market programs for means-tested benefit recipients in Germany

Abstract

This paper examines participation in labor market programs such as job subsidies, workfare, and training programs by lone mothers receiving means-tested unemployment benefits in Germany. Since the 2005 Hartz IV labor market policy reforms, expectations that non-employed parents responsible for caring for young children should be ready for employment or labor market program participation have grown stronger. However, discretion for program assignments is left to individual case managers in employment offices. Thus, lone mothers' participation in labor market programs is studied empirically here. This can contribute to determining the extent to which lone mothers are treated as adult workers in interactions with welfare state institutions in Germany. Entries into labor market programs are analyzed on the basis of large-scale administrative data using event-history analysis. Findings are that lone mothers' participation rates in workfare programs and class-room training programs closely approach or even surpass those of single childless women by the time their youngest child is 3 - 5 years old. In the case of programs that give more direct support for entering regular employment, like job subsidies and in-firm training programs, however, lone mothers' participation rates do not reach those of childless single women until their children are 6 - 9 or even 15 - 17 years old.