Beyond social ties: The impact of social capital on labour market outcomes for young Swedish people

TLDR: In this article, the authors make use of a dataset which contains material relating to young Swedish people who have recently completed their studies and started working, and explore whether using social networks as such or using individuals resources which are accessible through social networks (social capital) provides relative advantages in the competition for better jobs.

Abstract: This study makes use of a dataset which contains material relating to young Swedish people who have recently completed their studies and started working. It explores whether using social networks as such or using individuals’ resources which are accessible through social networks (social capital) provides relative advantages in the competition for better jobs. Interest in this topic stems from the recent development of sociological theories in this field. The results indicate that the use of social ties is a common way to find a job in the highly regulated Swedish labour market, but that informal recruitment methods per se provide no relative advantages in the competition for better jobs. On the other hand, given the same demographic characteristics, socioeconomic background and educational attainments, there is a positive association between resources embedded in an individual’s social network (social capital) and the quality of the jobs obtained.