Job Search on the Internet, E-Recruitment, and Labor Market Outcomes

TLDR: In this article, the authors used cross-sectional and panel data from the United States Germany, and South Korea, as well as a U.S. Army personnel dataset to investigate the role of the Internet in the job search process and its impact on labor market outcomes.

Abstract: : Over the past decade, Internet penetration rates have been on a sharp rise. The Internet has significantly changed the job application process and improved the channels of communication between employers and job-seekers. Yet despite significant interest in the topic, past studies offer little evidence on the role of the Internet in the job search process and its impact on labor market outcomes. This study uses cross-sectional and panel data from the United States Germany, and South Korea, as well as a U.S. Army personnel dataset. The first part of the dissertation builds a demographic and socio-economic profile of Internet job-seekers and assesses how this profile has evolved since late 1990s. Findings from the United States (1998-2003), Germany (2003-2007) and South Korea (1999-2006) indicate that use of the Internet for job search purposes has been correlated with a set of demographic and socio-economic observables: Internet job-seekers tend to be younger and to have higher incomes and levels of educational attainment. The study also finds that minority job-seekers in the United States and immigrant job-seekers in the United States and Germany are less likely to use the Internet. The second part of this dissertation provides an estimate of the impact of job search on the Internet on the likelihood of finding a job and ending an unemployment spell. The analysis indicates that Internet use increases the likelihood of 12-month reemployment by 5.0-7.1 percentage points. The results from South Korea and Germany remain statistically significant in the models with instrumental variables. The effect on the reemployment probability is more prominent in earlier years (1998 in the United States 1999-2000 in South Korea).