What keeps unemployment durations short?

Experimental evidence shows that early and intensive support (a the combination of meetings, job search courses, and early activation) keeps unemployment durations short. However, it was not clear from these experiments what "did the trick", was it the meetings, the courses or the combination of interventions?

Pederson, Rosholm, and Svarer expand on these experiments and show that the effects are due to the early meetings. The 6 to 7 meetings during the first two months of an unemployment spell have dramatic consequences:

individual meetings between newly unemployed workers and caseworkers can increase employment rates over the next two years by 10%, corresponding to 5 weeks, and our cost-bene…t analysis shows that the surplus per new unemployment spell is around EUR 4725.

Group meetings also have positive consequences, but these are more moderate than those from individual meetings.