Ineffectiveness of Social Contacts and Alternate Job Search Methods for Unemployed Youth in Sri Lanka

Mihindu Perera

No 373398, Working Papers from Verité Research

Abstract: Sri Lankan youth due to an extended period of unemployment face a lower possibility in future employment and a reduced earning capacity. As a solution, this paper aims to identify an efficient search method. Emphasis is placed on social contacts, given its popularity as a search method. Social contacts prove inefficient- leading to a 10.0% reduction in unemployment duration with a wage discount of 7.1%. Also, social contacts create a form of stickiness that increases dependency on social contacts and a reluctance to choose other, more efficient search methods in the future. The popularity, inefficiency and stickiness of social contacts are speculated as the probable cause for a large pool of youth to be unemployed over an extended period. As an alternative to social contacts, internet job search proves to be a more efficient search method reducing unemployment duration by 21.6% with a wage premium of 14.3%.

Keywords: Labor; and; Human; Capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:verewp:373398

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.373398

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