Systematic Job Search: New Evidence from Individual Job Application Data

Abstract

We use novel high-frequency panel data on individuals’job applications from a job posting website to study how job seekers direct their applications over the course of job search. We …nd that at the beginning of search there is sorting of applicants across job postings by education. As search continues, education becomes a weaker predictor of which job a job seeker applies for, and an average job seeker applies for jobs that are a …rst-week choice of less educated job seekers. We interpret these …ndings to suggest that search is systematic, whereby a job seeker samples high wage opportunities (conditional on his belief about the probability of meeting the job requirements) …rst and lower wage opportunities later. The …ndings provide evidence in favor of theories of job seekers’learning and are consistent with the literature that documents declining reservation or desired wages.