Cause of termination and self-efficacy expectations as related to reemployment status

The condition of unemployment has been a growing problem in the 1980's. Research in this area has typically focused on the needs of the unemployed and on the consequences of unemployment to the individual and the family. Little research had been conducted to learn what situational and individual variables influenced the ability of the unemployed to gain employment. There were two purposes of this study. The first was to explore the effects of the cause of termination on reemployment status. The second was to determine if perceptions of self-efficacy for job search behaviors influenced reemployment.;A quasi-experimental longitudinal design was used to test the research hypotheses. The Outplacement Needs Inventory (ONI) was used to measure perceptions of self-efficacy and the cause of termination. This instrument was administered to 200 unemployed individuals at one of two public employment agencies in Toledo, Ohio. Following administration of the questionnaire, participants were contacted two, four, and eight weeks later to determine their reemployment status. Correlational analyses and a t-test were utilized to determine significance.;Results of this study indicated that individuals with self-efficacy perceptions of a successful job search were less likely to be unemployed at four weeks and at eight weeks. The cause of termination exerted no influence on reemployment status. Further analyses indicated that the length of unemployment was negatively related to perceptions of self-efficacy. Subsequent analyses found that individual difference variables were weak predictors of reemployment.;The practical implications of these results are discussed in relation to clinical and industrial psychology. The results support the potential importance of self-efficacy in obtaining reemployment. It is recommended that future research on unemployment be conducted using process models and multidisciplinary teams to more fully represent the magnitude of the unemployment experience.