New research comparing the job search outcomes of unemployed and employed jobseekers and looking at the probability of them receiving an acceptable job offer concludes that the two groups are not in direct competition with one another.
Explaining differences in job search outcomes between employed and unemployed job seekers by Simonetta Longhi and Mark Taylor uses the Labour Force Survey to to compare the job finding rates of both groups and goes on to analyse whether any differences between those rates can be explained by their observed characteristics or the way they search for a job. The researchers then compare the outcomes for successful job seekers in respect of how much they earn, permanency and working hours.
The researchers found that unemployed job seekers have a higher probability of accepting a job offer than employed job seekers, indicating that the two groups respond differently to the receipt of a job offer. Employed jobseekers accept jobs paying higher wages than the unemployed. They are also less likely to accept temporary jobs and jobs which do not off the required working hours.
The research, part of a larger project funded by the Leverhulme Trust also found that the share of employed job seekers in the local labour market has little impact on the probability of unemployed people finding a job or on the quality of the job found and that the local unemployment rate has little impact on the probability of employed job seekers receiving an acceptable offer. Furthermore the effectiveness of different search strategies on the probability of finding a job differs between employed and unemployed jobseekers.
Simonetta Longhi explained:
“If different types of jobs are advertised in different ways, it is likely that job seekers select the search strategy most efficient at eliciting information about the types of jobs they are looking for. This evidence seems to suggest that employed and unemployed job seekers are not in direct competition with each other for the same jobs.”