The aim of the present study is to examine if unemployed people show factors necessary for collective action in comparison with employed people or unemployed people participating in unemployment associations. Unemployed people are a low-status group with permeable group boundaries. So according to social identity theory it is more likely that unemployed people try to leave their group and do not participate in collective action. To show collective action, it is also necessary to perceive the

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... tus of the group as illegitimate and unstable. Like in the study of Wahl et al. (2013) this study used the method of free association to measure social representation of various employed groups and the group of the unemployed as well as scales for the identification with the own group, perceived justice and perceived group-efficacy. The results show that unemployed people identify less with their own group than employed people. While employed people showed in-group favouritism from the social comparison perspective, unemployed people did not. Contrary to the findings of Wahl et al. (2013) unemployed people evaluated their own group better than other groups evaluated them (self-insight perspective). In addition to that unemployed people perceived the actual situation in Austria as fairer and the group-efficacy of the unemployed people as lower as people who are participating in unemployment associations. The results can serve as explanation why it is so hard to form a strong lobby for unemployed people in Austria. It is discussed if the enduring high unemployment rate and therefore increased higher contact with unemployed people have a small positive effect on the perception of unemployed people.