The effect of outplacement services on earning prospects of unemployed

Abstract

I use two administrative databases combining information about workers’ characteristics and earnings to estimate the effect of outplacement services on wage prospects of unemployed workers. The results suggest that the impact of outplacement is positive, although the magnitude depends on the type of service and gender. On one side, the group with the best results is constituted by men who receive individual outplacement, increasing their average annual gross wage by around 42%. On the other side, women who receive group outplacement show small results, whose figures are near 17%.