A new GLO Discussion Paper finds that a small number of occupations are responsible for a large share of registrations.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 971, 2021

Which Occupations Do Jobseekers and Firms Look For? Evidence from Three Public Employment Services – Download PDF
by Martins, Pedro S.

GLO Fellow Pedro Martins

Author Abstract: This study proposes and applies a new methodology to analyse firms’ and workers’ occupational preferences. We use microdata covering all 2014-2018 vacancy and jobseeker registrations from the Public Employment Services of Belgium, Morocco, and South Korea. We find that a small number of occupations are responsible for a large share of registrations and may thus deserve particular attention. We also find considerable stability in occupation preferences (especially by jobseekers) but that the correlation between firms’ and workers’ preferences weakens over time. Finally, we find different responsiveness levels of jobseeker preferences to vacancy gaps. However, young jobseekers do not appear to respond more quickly to such gaps.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS,  EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs – downloadable for free.

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