Advising Job Seekers in Occupations with Poor Prospects: A Field Experiment

Michèle Belot, Bart K. de Koning, Didier Fouarge, Philipp Kircher, Paul Muller and Sandra Phlippen

No 33819, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study the impact of online information provision to unemployed job seekers who are looking for work in occupations in slack markets, i.e. with only few vacancies per job seeker. Job seekers received suggestions about suitable alternative occupations, and how the prospects of these alternatives compare to their current occupation of interest. Some additionally received a link to a motivational video. We evaluate the interventions using a randomized field experiment covering all eligible job seekers registered to search in the target occupations. The vast majority of treated job seekers open the message revealing the alternative suggestions. The motivational video is rarely watched. Effects on unemployed job seekers in structurally poor labor markets are large: their employment, hours of work and labor income all improve by 5% to 6% after 18 months. Additional survey evidence shows that treated job seekers find employment in more diverse occupations.

JEL-codes: C93 J62 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lab
Note: EFG LS
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Working Paper: Advising Job Seekers in Occupations with Poor Prospects: A Field Experiment (2025)
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