Job Search Behavior Among the Employed and Non-Employed

73 Pages Posted: 31 Aug 2017 Last revised: 18 Aug 2022

See all articles by Jason Faberman

Jason Faberman

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Bureau of Labor Statistics - Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics

Andreas I. Mueller

University of Texas at Austin - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); IZA Institute of Labor Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Aysegul Sahin

Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Giorgio Topa

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of New York

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Abstract

Using a unique new survey, we study the relationship between search effort and outcomes for employed and non-employed workers. We find that the employed fare better than the non-employed in job search: they receive more offers per application and are offered higher pay even after controlling for observable characteristics. We use an on-the-job search model with endogenous search effort and find that unobserved heterogeneity explains less than a third of the residual wage offer differential. The model calibrated using various moments from our survey provides a good fit to the data and implies a reasonable flow value of unemployment.

Keywords: wage dispersion, search effort, on-the-job search, unemployment, job search

JEL Classification: E24, J29, J60

Suggested Citation

Faberman, Jason and Mueller, Andreas I. and Sahin, Aysegul and Topa, Giorgio, Job Search Behavior Among the Employed and Non-Employed. IZA Discussion Paper No. 10960, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3029831

Jason Faberman (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

230 South LaSalle Street
Chicago, IL 60604
United States

Bureau of Labor Statistics - Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics ( email )

2 Massachusetts Avenue NE
Washington, DC 20212
United States

Andreas I. Mueller

University of Texas at Austin - Department of Economics ( email )

Austin, TX 78712
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Aysegul Sahin

Federal Reserve Bank of New York ( email )

33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045
United States

Giorgio Topa

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of New York ( email )

33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045
United States

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