Total Recall: Total recall

The article examines recalls as a specific form of discontinuous employment in the process of public job placement and reintegration into the German labor market. Recall employment is the reinstatement of laid-off employees by a previous employer. The exploratory study investigates the conditions under which recall options are pursued in the process of job placement by public employment agencies, as well as the activities to promote or discard recall strategies and the expectations of unemployed persons regarding recalls in the placement process. As the data base for our qualitative secondary analysis, we used job placement interviews between job agents and unemployed persons that had been transcribed in full by the Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB). The results show that unemployed persons consider recalls if there is still a relationship of trust with the former employer even after they have left the company und if they expect to gain competitive advantages through existing company contacts. Unemployed persons associated recall with the expectation of being able to escape unemployment more quickly and avoid financial losses. Limited employment alternatives also frequently led to recall options, especially when job agents believed that an unemployed worker’s prospects of recall to a previous employer were more promising than alternative offers. Generally, the results indicate that recall represents a relevant option in public employment agencies’ job placement processes on the German labor market.