Job Search Activities Research Articles

한·일 체육전공 학생들의 진로선택에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to examine the career choice of students majoring in physical education at Korea and Japan universities after graduation. The subjects of this study were Korea physical education students in C University G Metropolitan City(n=80) and Japanese physical education students K University F City(n=107). The results of the questionnaire on career choice were as follows. The result of the recognition of employment activity, planning, job activity, and information in college are considered to be important by students of Korean physical education, and students of major in physical education in Japan consider it important for job anxiety, sense of purpose, prospect, and prudence appear. Results of consideration in Job-seeking activities, the students of the Korean Physical Education major showed the importance of the workplace, location, and distance. The students of the Japanese physical education major emphasized on the utilization of professionalism, working environment, level of salary, taste and interest, desired occupation, development experience, welfare and service level satisfaction. Based on the above results, it was found that the college students majoring in physical education who had to choose their career were aware of the importance and interest in matters to be considered in their employment and job search activities. The students who are employed in career decision tend to be higher in Japan than in Korea, and tend to be most successful before they graduate. At this point, I think that if we prepare active employment activities and various programs to enhance job satisfaction with active job search activities, we will be able to make a successful career choice according to our major.

More than just the Adoption of Western Capitalism? Time Use Changes in East Germany Following Reunification

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this paper examines changes in East German time use following the German Reunification of 1990, which led to large and unexpected economic and institutional changes, including the switch from a socialist to a capitalist system. By estimating Differences-in-Differences models, the study finds that East Germans reduced the time they spend on market work (96 min per weekday) and nonmarket work (51 min), while increasing the time allocated toward leisure and job search activities. The observed declines in market work time were largest for low-educated East Germans, those who were in the lowest income group, as well as for individuals between the ages 46 and 64. When comparing trends in time use for East and West Germany between 1990 and 2000, I provide evidence for a convergence in East German time use to its West German counterpart following the adoption of Western Capitalism and several other institutional and economic changes in East Germany. One possible explanation for this might be the adoption of West German time preferences following the reunion of the two regions.

Job search of men and women on long-term social welfare

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the job search probability in welfare receipt over time for men and women in different household constellations, because it is a major concern in welfare states that long-term receipt is driven by recipients’ low job search activity.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyses the likelihood to search for a job for a sample of unemployed recipients of means-tested welfare benefits in Germany. Data basis is the panel study “Labour Market and Social Security” (PASS), and growth curve models are applied in this study.FindingsJob search probability differs by household constellation and gender directly after the onset of welfare receipt; differences are less distinct for changes in job search probability over time. Only welfare recipients without children show a pronounced decline in search probability.Practical implicationsThere is no evidence that welfare recipients’ overall cease to search for a job by and by. Financial incentives alone cannot stimulate the job search of welfare recipients, when the diverse motives of male and female recipients in various household constellations are not considered as well.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to study the long-term development in the job search probability and gender differences by household constellations.

Employee recruitment and job search: Towards a multi-level integration

This study describes an attempt to develop an integrative model of job search and employee recruitment. Inevitably multi-level in nature, the model demonstrates the interplay between organizational-level factors and individual-level factors in influencing the outcomes of employee recruitment and job search activities. According to the model, influenced by job seeker and organizational characteristics, job search and recruitment activities jointly create job awareness, which is the first step in organizational attraction. Next, depending on the job seeker's current job situation, this attraction leads to job pursuit intention and behavior. The model also emphasizes the longitudinal nature of the process by which individuals gain employment. Finally, since each organization's applicant pool consists of job seekers with some common characteristics attracted to the same position, the model proposes that recruitment and job search can be examined by utilizing a multilevel framework.

Women's Job Search Competence: A Question of Motivation, Behavior, or Gender.

We examined motivation and behaviors in women’s active job search in Spain and the gender gap in this process. The current crisis in Spain and the increase in the number of unemployed people have revealed new inequalities that particularly affect women’s employability, especially the most vulnerable women. This paper addresses two exploratory studies: the first study analyzes gender differences in the active job search using a sample of 236 Spanish participants; the second study explores the heterogeneity and diversity of unemployed women in a sample of 235 Spanish women. To analyze the active job search, the respondents were invited to write open-ended responses to questions about their job search behaviors and complete some questionnaires about their motivation for their active job search. The content analysis and quantitative results showed no significant differences in motivational attributes, but there were significant gender differences in the job search behavior (e.g., geographical mobility). Moreover, the results showed heterogeneity in unemployed women by educational level and family responsibilities. The asynchronies observed in a neoliberal context reveal the reproduction of social roles, social-labor vulnerability, and a gender gap. Thus, women’s behavior is an interface between employment and family work, but not their motivations or aspirations. Our results can have positive implications for labor gender equality by identifying indicators of effectiveness in training programs for women’s job search, and it can contribute to designing intervention empowerment policies for women.

College Graduates with Visual Impairments: A Report on Seeking and Finding Employment

Introduction Career mentoring can help college graduates with legal blindness to address employment barriers. Data on specific employment outcomes and job search experiences for this population can inform job-seeking strategies for students, mentors, and service providers. Methods A longitudinal study evaluated job-seeking activities and employment outcomes for college students with legal blindness, half of whom were randomly assigned to work with a career mentor who was also legally blind and working in the same field. Students reported job search activities and experiences, and those employed reported job details including position, compensation, and satisfaction. Results Students spent a considerable amount of time job seeking, and reported low interviews-to-applications ratios. Trends indicated that students with mentors spent less time and effort in their job searches. Students identified challenges including job market competition, employer bias, and transportation issues. Students who found employment worked in varied fields, often in professional or skilled positions with competitive salaries. Discussion College students with legal blindness can achieve successful employment in competitive positions, but they may require an effortful job search to address well-known employment barriers for this population. Experienced mentors may provide guidance for a more focused and efficient job search. Implications for practitioners Invested time and effort are aspects of job seeking that students can control. Mentors can assist college students with legal blindness on those aspects, freeing time and resources to deal with systemic challenges such as employer attitudes and competition.

The Impact of Unemployment Insurance on Job Search: Evidence from Google Search Data

Job search is a key choice variable in theories of labor markets but is difficult to measure directly. We develop a job search activity index based on Google search data, the Google Job Search Index (GJSI). We validate the GJSI with both survey- and web-based measures of job search. Unlike those measures, the GJSI is high frequency, geographically precise, and available in real time. We demonstrate the GJSI’s utility by using it to study the effects of unemployment insurance policy changes between 2008 and 2014. We find no evidence of an economically meaningful effect of these changes on aggregate search.

The impact of a training intervention developing Psychological Capital on job search success

The purpose of this study is to explore whether training job seekers in the positive psychological resource of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) facilitates their job search activities and outcomes. Adopting a pre, post-test experimental design we developed PsyCap among job seekers and through a longitudinal design, we examined the impact of the PsyCap training on their job search success. Our findings demonstrated that more job seekers obtained employment in treatment than control condition. Moreover, those who received the PsyCap training (treatment group) had more interviews, more job offers and lower levels of job search behavior three months following the intervention compared to the control group. The important role of PsyCap in pursuing employment, as well as the practical implications of developing the positive psychological resource of PsyCap for both job seekers and career counselors are discussed.

Financial threat and individuals’ willingness to change financial behavior

Financial threat and individuals’ willingness to change financial behavior

Predictors of Acquisition of Competitive Employment for People Enrolled in Supported Employment Programs.

This study aims at assessing the relative contribution of employment specialist competencies working in supported employment (SE) programs and client variables in determining the likelihood of obtaining competitive employment. A total of 489 persons with a severe mental illness and 97 employment specialists working in 24 SE programs across three Canadian provinces were included in the study. Overall, 43% of the sample obtained competitive work. Both client variables and employment specialist competencies, while controlling for the quality of SE programs implementation, predicted job acquisition. Multilevel analyses further indicated that younger client age, shorter duration of unemployment, and client use of job search strategies, as well as the working alliance perceived by the employment specialist, were the strongest predictors of competitive employment for people with severe mental illness, with 51% of variance explained. For people with severe mental illness seeking employment, active job search behaviors, relational abilities, and employment specialist competencies are central contributors to acquisition of competitive employment.

Capabilities and Choices of Vulnerable, Long-Term Unemployed Individuals

This article discusses the issue of choice as it applies to long-term unemployed and vulnerable individuals. It argues that the combination of poor employment opportunities, requirements, compulsions and sanctions has not merely reduced available choice for individuals with multiple barriers to re-/join the labour market but has also resulted in curtailed decision-making abilities when it comes to their pathways into employment. The outcomes can include protective resistance as a response to the extent of regulation, which may undermine engagement in job search and related activities. Despite attempts by benevolent staff in a charity to provide support and enhance capabilities that result in the overcoming of protective resistance, they operate within a broader institutional framework of choice as set by government policy. The end result is compulsion, not choice.

Is retention necessarily a win? Outcomes of searching and staying

This research examines the issue of employee retention by considering what happens to employees that engage in the job search process yet end up staying with an organization. Grounded in the conceptualization of reluctant staying from Hom, Mitchell, Lee, and Griffeth (2012), we consider a potential downside of employee retention. Specifically, the study examines the psychological (i.e., job dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment) and behavioral detachment (i.e., neglect behavior, diminished job performance) employees may experience when they search for alternative employment yet ultimately stay with an organization. This study also examines the moderating role of the objective underlying the search behavior on job search and its criteria, arguing that the strength of the search-criteria link varies depending upon an employee's objective “to leave” the current employer. Results suggest an increase in psychological detachment and greater neglect behavior for employees that searched and stayed. These findings were not dependent on the reported objective “to leave” the employer. Implications for research on job search activity and withdrawal are discussed.

Noncompetes and Employee Mobility

We study the relationship between employment noncompetition agreements and employee mobility patterns using novel data from the 2014 Noncompete Survey Project. Specifically, we examine how noncompetes relate to the duration and nature of employee mobility, and we leverage our detailed individual-level survey data to identify and explore the precise mechanisms underlying the relationships we observe. We find that individuals with noncompetes appear to exhibit materially longer tenures and are more likely to depart for new employers that do not “compete” with their prior employers. To account for these patterns, we investigate the role noncompetes may play at each stage of the mobility “process”: job search, employer recruitment, offer receipt, negotiation, offer acceptance, etc. We present evidence that employees bound by noncompetes substitute job search activity and receptivity to recruitment in the direction of noncompetitors and that noncompetes are a factor in the choice to turn down approximately 40 percent of the offers employees receive from competitors.

Implications of technological change and austerity for employability in urban labour markets

Over the last decade two key changes affecting employability, labour market operation and policy delivery are austerity and the expansion of the use of information and communication technologies (ICT), especially web-based technologies. Increasingly, given pressures for cost savings and developments in ICT, employers’ recruitment and selection strategies are at least partly web-based, careers guidance and public employment services are moving towards ‘digital by default’ delivery and job seekers are expected to manage their job search activity and benefit claims electronically. So, what are the implications of austerity and technological change for employability? This article presents a critical review of the literature on ICT and its relation to, and implications for, employability in a context of austerity. A new framework for employability is presented and those aspects of employability where ICT plays a key role are highlighted. It is concluded that in the context of austerity and technological change more is demanded of individual job seekers/workers, as they are expected to take greater responsibility for their marketability in the labour market. This means that individuals’ attributes and skills are of enhanced importance in conceptualisations of employability. ICT skills have a key role to play in employability, but not at the expense of more conventional social skills which remain very important alongside digital literacy.

How to minimize lock-in effects of programs for unemployed workers

Activation programs, such as job search assistance, training, or work experience programs for unemployed workers, typically initially produce negative employment effects. These so-called “lock-in effects” occur because participants spend less time and effort on job search activities than non-participants. Lock-in effects need to be offset by sufficiently large post-participation employment or earnings for the programs to be cost-effective. They represent key indirect costs that are often more important than direct program costs. The right timing and targeting of these programs can improve their cost-effectiveness by reducing lock-in effects.

Age and reemployment success after job loss: An integrative model and meta-analysis.

Despite widespread popular concern about what it means to be over 40 and unemployed, little attention has been paid in the literature to clarifying the role of age within the job seeking experience. Extending theory, we propose mechanisms by which chronological age affects job search and reemployment outcomes after job loss. Through a meta-analysis and examination of 2 supplemental datasets, we examine 5 questions: (a) How strong is the relationship between age and reemployment speed? (b) Does age disadvantage individuals with respect to other reemployment outcomes? (c) Is the relationship between age and reemployment outcomes mediated by job search activities? (d) Are these relationships generalizable? and (e) Are these relationships linear or curvilinear? Our findings provide evidence for a negative relationship between age and reemployment status and speed across job search decade, world region, and unemployment rate, with the strength of the negative relationship becoming stronger over age 50. Job search self-efficacy and job search intensity partially mediate the relationship between age and both reemployment status and speed. (PsycINFO Database Record

The mediating role of perceived employability in the relationship between core self-evaluations and job search behaviour

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of perceived employability in the relationship between core self-evaluations (CSEs) and job search behaviour (preparatory and active job search). Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional survey data were obtained among a sample of 254 employed and unemployed graduate students from a university in Southeast Nigeria. Findings – Results of the hierarchical multiple regression show that CSEs was significantly and positively associated with only preparatory job search behaviour but not active job search behaviour. CSEs was positively associated with perceived employability. Perceived employability was positively associated with the preparatory job search but not active job search. Perceived employability also mediated the relationship between CSEs and preparatory job search but failed to mediate the relationship between CSEs and active job search. Research limitations/implications – The study makes important contribution to the literature on job search by augmenting our understanding on the mechanism that govern core self-evaluation and job search behaviour relationship. Practical implications – Human resources practitioners can use the insights of the present study in understanding aspects of jobseekers’ personality and perception that may be relevant in job search behaviour. The study has also implications for career development practice especially in the areas of counselling of job seekers in environments where there is high level of unemployment. Originality/value – There has been rarely any previous attempt at investigating the possibility that the relationship between CSEs and job search behaviour is mediated by perceived employability.

Social capital and job search behaviour of long-term welfare recipients

Purpose– Long-term welfare recipients in the Netherlands are either long-term unemployed or part-time employed in jobs that generate incomes below the subsistence level. The question is whether reintegration policies aiming at their return to – a fulltime – job should consider individual social network factors besides psychological and human capital factors. The purpose of this paper is to investigate welfare recipients’ job search behaviour, in particular how individual social capital is distributed, and whether it is related to job search activities.Design/methodology/approach– Standardised and structured interviews were conducted with 189 long-term unemployed welfare recipients. An adapted version of the Resource Generator instrument was used to measure individual access to social capital.Findings– Social capital scales measuring domestic social resources, status-related social resources, expert advice on regulations and financial matters, and advice on finding a job were developed and psychometrically tested. Status-related social resources were more easily accessible to men and higher educated persons. Advice on finding a job was more easily accessible to recently unemployed individuals. Domestic social resources were less accessible to ethnic minorities. Persons with more social capital, specifically status-related social resources and advice in finding a job, showed more active job search behaviour.Social implications– The differences in job search activities between respondents with more social capital and those with less social capital were present but to a small degree, and therefore there is no argument for reintegration activities to focus on enlarging social capital.Originality/value– This study addresses the instrumental functions of the social network by multidimensionally scrutinising the resources that social relationships provide access to.

Positive affect as coercive strategy: conditionality, activation and the role of psychology in UK government workfare programmes

Eligibility for social security benefits in many advanced economies is dependent on unemployed and underemployed people carrying out an expanding range of job search, training and work preparation activities, as...

Employment subsidies, informal economy and women’s transition into work in a depressed area: evidence from a matching approach

Abstract We analyze the effects of an ALMP for disadvantaged workers implemented in a depressed area of Italy. Using propensity-score matching, we find that a) the employment subsidy had a positive effect for participants on both the probability of finding a job and income, b) the outcome of the policy was more positive for women, and c) the program was more effective for older and less-educated female workers. Using data on previous contacts between workers and firms and on informal channels for job search activity, we ultimately explore the role of the program in promoting the transition from informal to salaried employment.