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Subsidised employment is one tool of active labour market policies to improve the chances of the unemployed to find permanent employment. Using informative individual data coming from various administrative sources we investigate the effects of two different schemes of subsidised temporary employment implemented in Switzerland. One scheme operates as a non-profit employment programme (EP), whereas the other is a subsidy for temporary jobs (TEMP) in firms operating in competitive markets. Using econometric matching methods we find that EP is considerably more successful in getting the unemployed back into work than TEMP. Compared to nonparticipation both programmes are unsuccessful for unemployed that find job easily and for those with short unemployment duration. For unemployed with difficulties of finding jobs and for actual long term unemployed, both programmes may have positive effects, but the effect of TEMP is much larger.