Studies On Job-seeking Behaviors And Its Influencing Factors Among Minimum Living Guarantee System Recipients

How to balance the relationship between social assistance and employment,both to prevent welfare dependency,but also to prevent social exclusion is one of the problems needed to be solved in the reform of social assistance policy.Establishing a beneficial guidance mechanism for positive job seekers is the main way to solve such a problem.In China,since the working age population is becoming the main part of recipients of Minimum Living Guarantee System(MLGS),how to set up a reasonable institutional arrangement to promote those with working capability to seek a job is a main issue.In this paper,we have chosen Shanghai,which stands as a model city of the construction of social assistance system,as our sphere of research in analyzing employment promotion of vulnerable groups.Using first-hand research data and case-interview materials,this paper explores the job-seeking behaviors and its influencing factors among recipients of MLGS.Using the Individual-Family-Institutional Analysis Framework,the study finds that both the number of members with formal jobs and that of those who ever participated in(a)job interview(s)are small.The Logistics regression analysis shows that age and educational level are two of individual factors which have a significant effect on job-seeking behavior.Among family factors,the higher the burden of family care,the lower possibility of their seeking a job;the higher the life satisfaction,the higher possibility of their seeking a job.Among institutional factors,the result does not indicate that "welfare factors" generate negative incentives for employment.In other words,"welfare dependency" does not exist in the recipients of MLGS.The result also shows that "employment promotion factors" have a positive incentive for job seeking.Based on the theoretical and empirical analysis,this paper puts forward three suggestions to promote the employment of recipients of MLGS in Shanghai.The first is to improve the social assistance system;the second is to provide more targeted employment assistance;the third is to provide care for low-income family members.