Employment After Vocational Rehabilitation in Finland: A Matched Study by Entry Pathway and Rehabilitation Type

Purpose To examine post-rehabilitation employment among participants in vocational rehabilitation within the Finnish earnings-related pension system compared with matched controls. We distinguished between self-applicants and individuals granted rehabilitation entitlement in connection with a disability pension decision and assessed variation by rehabilitation type and diagnostic group. Methods Using nationwide register data, we identified all individuals whose earnings-related vocational rehabilitation ended in 2023 (N = 5243). A combination of exact and propensity score matching was used to select controls with similar background characteristics and pre-rehabilitation labour market histories from the general population. Employment during twelve months following the end of rehabilitation was examined as the outcome. Results When all rehabilitation types were combined, employment during the first post-rehabilitation year was 16.8 percentage points higher among self-applicants than among matched controls. Among individuals granted rehabilitation entitlement in connection with a disability pension decision, the corresponding difference was 28.1 percentage points. Differences between rehabilitation participants and controls were clearly larger for workplace-based rehabilitation than for vocational training. Higher employment among participants was observed across all diagnostic groups. Conclusions The findings are consistent with vocational rehabilitation supporting continued labour market participation, including among individuals who had already reached a later stage of the work disability process. However, some residual selection may remain, as rehabilitation participants may differ from non-participants in ways that are not fully captured by register data. Differences between rehabilitation types should be interpreted keeping in mind that workplace rehabilitation may be more feasible option for individuals with less severe work disability risks.