Unemployed Job Seekers Research Articles

Job search in the presence of a stressor: Does financial hardship change the effectiveness of job search?

• SDT, COR and Scarcity Theory predict financial hardship reduces quality of job search. • We test this effect of hardship on search effectiveness in a PS matching analysis. • We control for confounders and the effect of financial hardship on search intensity. • Using Australian data, hardship reduces—through search quality—search effectiveness. • We show the importance of controlling for confounders in labor market research. Following a group of 2,973 Australian unemployed job seekers over time, we confirm predictions from Self-Determination Theory, Conservation of Resources Theory and Scarcity Theory that the presence of financial hardship during job search adversely affects job search quality and subsequently job search effectiveness (measured one year later). We show the importance in labor market research of controlling for a range of confounding factors including the impact of financial hardship on job search intensity. The implemented controls allow more precise inferences of the effect of financial hardship on job search quality/effectiveness, than so far achieved in this emerging body of literature.

Youth Hiring and Labor Market Tightness

It is well-known that recessions can lead to long-term scarring for young workers. I show that employers hire fewer young workers when there are few job openings per unemployed job seeker, while hiring rates for workers with more than 10 years of potential experience are much less cyclically volatile. During the COVID-19 pandemic, youth employment rates rebounded particularly quickly compared with other groups and historic patterns. I show this is consistent with the historic relationship between tightness and youth hiring rates, suggesting youth scarring from the COVID-19 pandemic may be less severe compared with previous recessions.

Correlates of job search behaviour among unemployed job seekers in Ghana: A mediation model

This study examined the role of goal setting and the association between the determinants of job search and job search behaviour among unemployed job seekers. Participants were 203 Ghanaians (female = 38%; bachelor’s degree holders = 85%; master’s degree holders = 15%; mean age = 26.5 years, SD = 5.49 years). The results of the structural equation model showed that employment goal commitment mediated job search behaviour and job search determinants of financial hardship, subjective norm, job search efficacy, and social support. Unexpectedly, results revealed that individuals with higher social support were less likely to engage in job search behaviour. These findings suggest that personal agency is important to job search behaviours in a developing country economy.

An Original Solution for Completing Research through Snowball Sampling—Handicapping Method

Snowball sampling, as a network research, has a number of advantages in registering “hidden populations”, such as: people with rare diseases and unrecognized by the community, illegal immigrants, drug users, people with deviant sexual behavior, undeclared workers, alcoholics, gambling or computer addicts, unemployed jobseekers, domestic and school violence, etc. The procedure is well known and widely applied, as are its drawbacks, the most important of which is the ambiguity regarding the size of the sample under investigation, as the number of interviewees cannot be predetermined, but it is up to the researcher to stop the survey when he/she considers the accumulation of information to be satisfactory or when the imposed limit of the research budget has been reached. The major disadvantage of this method of survey is the absence of objective, quantitative, scientifically based criteria, on the decision to stop the survey and this is precisely the aspect proposed to be resolved in the present paper. Our proposal, the handicapping method, adapts and develops the Wald test of the likelihood ratio for the case of investigating populations in terms of binary characteristics, a typical situation for sociological research. The procedure complements the snowball method, providing a completion under the conditions of assumed statistical risks. The results obtained in this original material can make a major contribution to the improvement of sociological research methods in a special field—sociological field survey/research in closed groups and non-visible populations.

How effective are hiring subsidies in reducing long-term unemployment among prime-aged jobseekers? Evidence from Belgium

Abstract Hiring subsidies are widely used to create (stable) employment for the long-term unemployed. This paper exploits the abolition of a hiring subsidy targeted at long-term unemployed jobseekers older than 45 years of age in Belgium to evaluate its effectiveness in the short and medium run. Based on a triple-difference methodology, the hiring subsidy is shown to increase the job-finding rate by 13% without any evidence of spillover effects. This effect is driven by a positive effect on individuals with at least a bachelor's degree. However, the hiring subsidy mainly creates temporary short-lived employment: eligible jobseekers are not more likely to find employment that lasts at least 12 consecutive months compared with ineligible jobseekers.

Give it Another Try: What are the Effects of a Job Creation Scheme Especially Designed for Hard-to-Place Workers?

Previous evaluations of job creation schemes (JCS) reveal mostly negative employment effects, mainly due to inherent lock-in effects. In this paper, we assess the impact of an innovative JCS that employs a pre-selection mechanism to target programme participation on unemployed job seekers with very low integration chances, hereby reducing possible lock-in effects. Relying on high-quality administrative as well as survey data, we conduct regression-adjusted matching analyses to estimate the programme effect on integration into regular employment. Our results show that the programme did not succeed to foster labour market integration, but still entails remarkably negative employment effects in the first years after participation. We argue that this results from a principal-agent problem at the last step of the selection mechanism that may have led to cream-skimming rather than targeting on very hard to place workers. However, supplementary analyses reveal that negative effects can be avoided for subgroups with very poor employment chances in case of non-participation. These results are robust to the use of different matching estimators and definitions of non-participation. The inclusion of usually unobservable survey variables as well as placebo tests based on past employment outcomes refute concerns about endogenous selection. From a policy-perspective, these findings imply that targeting JCS on workers with very low integration chances is a key factor to avoid negative employment effects found in previous evaluations. At the methodological level, our analyses add to recent literature that assesses the credibility of non-experimental evaluations based on high-quality administrative data.

Social and Personal Resources During Job Search: How Can They Help?

Job seekers need to manage their efforts as they navigate the ebbs and flows of the job search process. While they engage in behaviors to find a job, they are likely to rely on resources that are available to them. In this paper, we build on conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989) to examine the role of such resources throughout the job search process. Specifically, we investigate whether and how both social and personal resources influence the job search process over time. In a multi-level study following 89 unemployed job seekers for 6 months, resulting in a total of 311 observations, we find that both social (i.e., social support and networking behaviors) and personal (i.e., job search self-efficacy) resources are positively related to job search intensity. In turn, we find that networking behaviors and job search self-efficacy are positively related to the number of job interviews obtained, albeit indirectly for networking behaviors. Finally, we find that networking behaviors and job search self-efficacy interact with each other, such that positive relationship of either resource with job search intensity and the number of job interviews becomes negative when unemployed job seekers are high in both resources.

Self-regulation and Autonomy in the Job Search: Key Factors to Support Job Search Among Swiss Job Seekers

AbstractTechnology integration in the workplace context has led to substantial growth in high- versus low-skilled jobs, and thus, further disparities between workers and those who were already unemployed. Technology use is also being used more frequently in the job search process, which could further lead to disparities, especially for job seekers experiencing marginalization. Thus, we conducted a controlled longitudinal field deployment of two employment-based tools—RevueCV and InterviewApp—among 46 Switzerland-based unemployed job seekers. Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), we sought to understand how the tools affected job search self-efficacy, subjective norms and job search attitudes—the three factors that influence a job seekers’ job search intention. Although participants appreciated the support the two tools provided, and the inherent study benefits, our interview and survey results showed no substantial changes in their TPB values, primarily because the tools provided overlapping services with the local job placement offices. However, results of our interviews found autonomy, or the lack thereof, to be a key factor contributing to job seeker dissatisfaction. We introduce the concept of self-regulation to the TPB as an explanatory construct and contribute design and theoretical implications to support autonomy among job seekers with less control of their job search.

Job search self-regulation during COVID-19: Linking search constraints, health concerns, and invulnerability to job search processes and outcomes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused tremendous job loss and made it difficult for unemployed individuals to search for new jobs. Specifically, the pandemic has created numerous job search obstacles, such as increased childcare and community responsibilities, that interfere with job seekers' ability to search for a job. Yet, the job search literature has scantily examined the implications of such job search constraints for job seekers even in normal times, and the limited studies that do exist have produced mostly null findings. Drawing from self-regulation theories, we position COVID-19 job search constraints as a catalyst for lower hopeful search cognitions but greater reflective metacognitive activities. To account for the distinct mechanism via which health concerns highlighted by the pandemic influence job search, we further contend that job search self-regulation is contingent upon job seekers' COVID-19 invulnerability, a novel resource-protective cognition that reflects an optimistic perception regarding how at risk job seekers feel to catching and falling ill due to COVID-19. In turn, we link such self-regulatory cognition and effort to seekers' job search distress, and job search behaviors and outcomes (i.e., number of job interviews), respectively. We also identify health-related resource loss risk factors (i.e., health status and share of family and friends' COVID-19 exposure) that impact COVID-19 invulnerability perceptions. Collecting three waves of data from 228 unemployed job seekers, we found general support for our model. Theoretical and practical implications of the current research for now and after the pandemic are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Evaluating a job search strategy model of fit perceptions: a construct validation amongst unemployed job seekers

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the (1) psychometric properties of Crossley and Highhouse's job search strategy scale and (2) the predictive utility of the scale on fit perceptions.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from unemployed job seekers in Ghana (nT1 = 720; nT2 = 418). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine the data.FindingsExploratory factor analysis on the first random sub-sample (n = 362) supported a three-factor model. Confirmatory factor analysis on the second random sub-sample (n = 358) confirmed the three-factor structure and was invariant across job search contexts and genders. Moreover, structural path results showed that the use of focussed and exploratory job search strategies facilitated positive fit perceptions and the use of haphazard job search resulted in poor job fit perceptions.Originality/valueThis study is the first to examine the dimensionality of job search strategies based on different job search context by linking it to fit perceptions. Moreover, the authors provide evidence that the job search strategy scale has a valid psychometric property and a promising instrument to assess job search behaviour across job search contexts and genders in an understudied population.

Health-improving interventions for obtaining employment in unemployed job seekers: a Cochrane Review

Health-improving interventions for obtaining employment in unemployed job seekers: a Cochrane Review

Shifting the Training Choice Decision to the Jobseeker—The Slovak Experience

AbstractWe describe a reform in the allocation of training to unemployed jobseekers in Slovakia. Under the REPAS reform, unemployed jobseekers choose a specialization and training provider. This shift in responsibility from the caseworker to the client is comparable to the introduction of training vouchers under the German HARTZ I reform. Benefiting from research available on the German case, we first estimate the positive employment effects of training participation separately for the pre‐REPAS and REPAS periods. Second, we quantify and disaggregate the overall effect of the reform, which does not appear to be driven by a change in the composition of the participants. However, for at least one training specialization, this change does play a role in the short run. The overall reform effect is not channelled through the newly created segment of rare training specializations or high‐skilled participants.

What Can Explain the Hump-Shaped Job Search Intensities Over the Life-Cycle?

This paper explores the puzzling inverted U-shape job search profile for U.S. data. It is well established that the standard life-cycle incomplete market model is incapable of explaining this phenomenon because of the wealth effect. I argue two channels to explain the puzzle: (i) the resolution of perceived risks through Bayesian learning, and (ii) wealth accumulation in the incomplete market over the life-cycle. To support this, I empirically and analytically show that unemployed job seekers devote less efforts to find jobs under higher uncertainty and wealth.

Do digital information technologies help unemployed job seekers find a job? Evidence from the broadband internet expansion in Germany

This paper studies effects of the introduction of a new digital mass medium on reemployment of unemployed job seekers. We combine data on broadband internet availability at the local level with German individual register data. We address endogeneity by exploiting technological peculiarities that affected the roll-out of broadband internet. Results show that broadband internet improves reemployment rates after the first months in unemployment for males. Complementary analyses with survey data suggest that internet access mainly changes male job seekers’ search behavior by increasing online search and the number of job applications.

Eliciting time preferences when income and consumption vary: Theory, validation & application to job search

We propose a simple method for eliciting individual time preferences without estimating utility functions even in settings where background consumption changes over time. It relies on lottery tickets with high rewards. In a standard intertemporal choice model high rewards decouple lottery choices from variation in background consumption. We validate our elicitation method experimentally on two student samples: one asked in December when their current budget is reduced by extraordinary expenditures for Christmas gifts; the other asked in February when no such extra constraints exist. We illustrate an application of our method with unemployed job seekers which naturally have income/consumption variation.

Eliciting Time Preferences When Income and Consumption Vary: Theory, Validation & Application to Job Search

We propose a simple method for eliciting individual time preferences without estimating utility functions even in settings where background consumption changes over time. It relies on lottery tickets with high rewards. In a standard intertemporal choice model high rewards decouple lottery choices from variation in background consumption. We validate our elicitation method experimentally on two student samples: one asked in December when their current budget is reduced by extraordinary expenditures for Christmas gifts; the other asked in February when no such extra constraints exist. We illustrate an application of our method with unemployed job seekers which naturally have income/consumption variation.

Testing Endogeneity, Convexity and Congestion in a Matching Function: Evidence from Finland

This study contributes to the literature on the efficiency of regional labor markets using matching function to model labor markets and nonparametric methods DEA and FDH to measure efficiency of those markets. DEA has been the most popular method in empirical studies measuring efficiency for an industry and there is also a literature applying DEA to study the efficiency of labor markets. However, this literature neglects two problems important for consistent estimation of a matching function: the possible endogeneity of inputs and non-convexity of the production set. Endogeneity manifests as correlation between inputs and efficiencies. In this paper, we first analyze whether the inputs of the matching function or unemployed jobseekers and open vacancies are exogenous. As our results do not reject exogeneity, we continue treating these inputs exogenous. Next, we evaluate convexity of production set. Testing convexity is an important prerequisite for the use of DEA, because DEA assumes convexity and supplies consistent efficiencies only when the production set is convex. However, convexity is rarely assessed when DEA is applied. In this paper, we evaluate convexity of the production set of the matching function. We use several tests including ones that are based on recently proposed central limit theorems for moments of DEA and FDH estimators. Out of ten tests performed, six ones reject convexity while four ones do not. The tests leave us with a strong belief in non-convexity, and this directs us to apply FDH instead of DEA in the sequel, when we study congestion of inputs. We find strong congestion of open vacancies concerning Helsinki travel-to-work area for several years. In 2017 the loss of matches due to congestion was more than 20 000, amounting to 2.5% of the labor force in Helsinki region, 0.8% in the whole country. Our research with data on 113 travel-to-work areas and 15 public employment (TE-) offices in 2007–19 in Finland, shows huge differences in labor market situation between regions, especially Helsinki and the rest of the country, calling attention from the decision-makers both in firms and government. Also, our study emphasizes the need to pretest data for exogeneity and convexity before applying DEA.

Mandatory Integration Agreements for Unemployed Job Seekers: A Randomized Controlled Field Experiment in Germany

In the German unemployment insurance system, Integration Agreements (IA) are mandatory contracts between the employment agency and the unemployed, jointly signed by the latter and the caseworker. IAs stipulate rights and obligations but are generally perceived as instruments to control search behavior. We designed and implemented a Randomized Controlled Trial involving thousands of newly unemployed workers, where we randomize the timing of the IA as well as the extent to which this timing is announced prior to the meeting. Randomization is at the individual level. We use administrative registers to observe outcomes. A theoretical analysis of anticipation of prior announcements provides suggestions to empirically detect this. The results show that IAs early in the spell have on average a small positive effect on entering employment within a year. When classifying individuals using an employability indicator, we find that this result is driven by individuals with adverse prospects. Among them, being assigned to an early IA increases the probability of re-employment within a year from 45% to 53%.

Statistical profiling of unemployed jobseekers

Statistical models can help public employment services to identify factors associated with long-term unemployment and to identify groups at risk. Statistical profiling models will probably even become more prominent as new machine learning techniques in combination with the increasing availability of big data will improve their predictive power. However, a policy maker cannot just define an outcome variable at the start of the project and walk away: a continuous dialogue between data analysts, policy makers and caseworkers is very important. Indeed, throughout the process, normative decisions are to be made: profiling practices misclassify many individuals. They can reinforce but also prevent existing patterns of discrimination.

Moderators of Career Calling and Job‐Search Behaviors Among Unemployed Individuals

We examined the relationship between calling, job‐search clarity, and job‐search intensity in a cross‐sectional study of Italian unemployed job seekers (N = 315). Structural equation modeling with observed variables and latent moderated structural equation models were adopted to test whether optimism, self‐esteem, and perseverance moderate the relation between calling, job‐search clarity, and job‐search intensity. Perceiving a calling was positively related with job‐search clarity and intensity, and these relations were stronger in individuals with lower levels of optimism, self‐esteem, and perseverance. This study suggests that perceiving a calling is an important personal resource that is related to a clearer job‐search goal and to more intense job‐search activities and can support job seekers in personal adverse conditions. These results suggest integrating job‐search behaviors in the work‐as‐calling theory and that incorporating the construct of calling into career counselors' practices may increase the efficacy of job‐search activities.