In 2023, unemployment levels are on a steady decline, which does not mean that those who are unemployed are not facing any obstacles. Given the lack of literature of a more comprehensive understanding of the experiences of the unemployed, the aim of this master thesis is to examine well-being, motivation and being informed in unemployed persons. I was interested in whether unemployed people with higher intrinsic motivation have higher well-being, how are motivation and well-being related, and what are the differences according to the number of times they have been registered at the employment agency. I analysed whether intrinsically motivated people are more informed than those who are extrinsically motivated and how the unemployed are informed according to their motivation, age, education, duration of unemployment and number of registrations at the employment agency. Lastly, I wanted to explore how the long-term unemployed differ from others in all three constructs. The 121 unemployed people who participated in the study completed the Mental Health Continuum - Short Form, the Work Preference Inventory, an information test and answered a few demographic questions. After the analysis, I adapted the Work Preference Inventory so that its subscales were from this point on extrinsic motivation and being positively challenged. The results showed that people who are more positively challenged have higher well-being than externally motivated individuals, but there is no difference in how informed they are. Additional main findings were that well-being and its subdimension psychological well-being were slightly to moderately negatively associated with extrinsic motivation, and psychological well-being was moderately positively associated with being positively challenged. More highly educated participants reported higher levels of information than those with lower levels of education. The results can be used for further planning and design of programmes for the unemployed.
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