Impacts of Local Labor Market Information on Search and Employment: Evidence from India
The researchers partner with an online job portal to provide over 6,000聽job seekers in India with customized and timely information
Abstract
The job search process is complex and rife with information frictions. We partner with an online job portal to provide over 6,000聽job seekers in India with about聽labor market conditions for their preferred city and occupation on聽the portal. Specifically, we randomly provide information regarding vacancies (demand), searchers (supply), or both (tightness); a聽control group receives only general job search guidance. We find聽that treated respondents are 10% more likely to be employed than聽control respondents six months after treatment. This positive effect聽is driven by those with less optimistic beliefs about finding new employment at baseline; these individuals adjust their search to find聽new jobs if unemployed and stay in the same jobs if employed at聽baseline. Our experiment shows how access to information about聽local labor market conditions can reduce frictional unemployment.
This is an output of the Gender, Growth and Labour Markets in Low Income Countries Programme
Citation
Singh, N. and Ravishankar, S. (2023). 鈥淚mpacts of Local Labor Market Information on Search and Employment: Evidence from India鈥�. G2LM LIC Policy Brief No. 56.