The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Labour Demand and Search Behavior: Evidence from a job search webpage in Costa Rica and Google Data

Abstract

This paper presents estimates of how the pandemic of COVID-19 and the lockdown policies implemented in Costa Rica to contain its spread affected the firm’s decision to post vacancies and workers search behavior, using data from the online job advertisement webpage buscoempleocr. Differences in Differences estimates suggest a drop of 67.2% in the inflow of vacancies posted by firms before and after the policies were implemented, relative to previous year. Results by industry states that Accommodation and Food Services, reported the highest decline in vacancy posting. By occupations, the reduction in vacancy posting was more severe for the groups of service and sales workers and elementary occupations. By location, the most affected provinces are those that i) are characterized by their touristic industries and ii) are main cities where industries are concentrated. Regarding the labor supply, there is an increase in the number of job seekers, however their search intensity might have declined during the pandemic.