A Psychological Typology of Newly Unemployed People for Profiling and Counselling

Profiling of the unemployed in order to predict and prevent long-term unemployment has hitherto been based on socio-professional data; however, there is evidence that psychological dimensions also predict job search strategies and unemployment duration. In order to provide psychological profiling, a typological method could be more parsimonious than trait/dimension approaches. Typologies created to date have not addressed the issue of predicting employment status. A sample of 384 newly unemployed people was assessed using psychometric scales which have been shown in past research to be linked to job finding. Through cluster analysis, five groups of unemployed people were differentiated: the “integrated”, “willing”, “outsider”, “anxious”, and “dispossessed”. The typology showed predictive validity for employment status after 12 months. People who were “anxious” or “dispossessed” were more often unemployed than those who were “integrated”, “willing”, or “outsider”. It provided an alternative way of classifying unemployed people that could be used in profiling and especially in advisory support and counselling.