How Do Non-Standard Work and Labour Market Policy Spending Shape Preferences for Training Versus Unemployment Benefits in Budgetary Trade-Offs?

This study investigates workers' preferences for expanding training and education at the cost of reducing unemployment benefits in the context of budgetary trade-offs. It focuses on non-standard employment types at the individual level and the ratios of expenditures on training and unemployment benefits within labour market policies (LMPs) at the county level. Analysing a dataset that combines European Social Survey Round 8 data (2016) with country-level data from the OECD for 19 European countries, the findings reveal that workers' preferences vary depending on employment type and LMP expenditure allocation. The analysis indicates that part-time permanent workers are more supportive of increasing training at the expense of unemployment benefits, while part-time temporary workers show less support. Full-time temporary employees and solo self-employed workers exhibit no significant differences from standard employees. From a comparative perspective, support for reallocating funds to training is lower in countries that dedicate a larger share of their LMP budget to training but higher in countries that spend more on unemployment benefits within their total LMP expenditure.