Unemployment and social exclusion: a longitudinal study

The paper presents a research of the influence of long-term unemployment on other components of the social exclusion process - economic deprivation and social isolation, as well as the probability of the employment of persons with different characteristics. The data were obtained through a longitudinal research, conducted on two occassions (in 2003 and 2004), on the sample of unemployment persons in Croatia. Out of 601 respondents who were unemployed during the first research, 394 persons remained unemployed a year later, while 207 persons managed to get employed. These two groups of respondents were compared in terms of financial deprivation, social isolation and other characteristics. The results have shown that long-term unemployment in Croatia impoverishes and socially isolates people. During a period of about a year, those respondents who remained unemployed showed a considerable decrease of their financial resources and the increase of social isolation, while those who were employed showed an improvement of their material situation and the decrease of social isolation. Apart from that, the comparison between those who were employed and those who remained unemployed showed that the process of employment is discriminatory towards certain categories of the unemployed. The most threatened individuals are persons over the age of 45, with a lower level of education, poor persons, long-term unemployed and the individuals with impaired psychical and physical health. The combination of those characteristics practically makes employment in Croatia impossible and thus predetermines individuals for the position of socially excluded persons.