Is Supported Employment Effective for Young Adults with Disability Pension? Evidence from a Swedish Randomized Evaluation

We report results from a large-scale randomized experiment evaluating whether a supported employment rehabilitation intervention strategy can improve labor market opportunities for young adults on disability pension better than regular vocational rehabilitation. The supported employment intervention utilizes a caseworker as backup for the individual during training to reduce employers' risks when hiring an individual with unclear productivity. In total, 1,062 individuals were randomly assigned between interventions. The main results show that 18 months after the start of the project, participants with supported employment have work rates that are approximately ten percentage points higher than participants who received regular rehabilitation.