Job Search and Determinants of Job Search Intensity in Turkey

Abstract

There are a few numbers of studies on job search behavior of unemployed individuals in the developing countries. The aim of this paper is to examine those factors which have an effect on the job-search intensity of Turkish unemployed job seekers. For this purpose we use the data on individual job seekers obtained from the Household Labor Force Surveys of 2000 and 2001. We examine the effects of personal, household and labor market characteristics on the job search intensity. The analyses are carried out for the full data as well as by considering gender and residence dimension. According to our general results, urban residents are more likely to search more intensively than rural residents. It is also observed that females search less intensively than males. Increases in education level seem to increase the job search intensity. There is an inverse-U shaped relation between age and job search intensity. While living in the most developed regions of Turkey, i.e. Marmara and Aegean increase the intensity of job search, living in the least developed regions of East and South-East Anatolia decline the job search intensity. Increases in unemployment rate increase the job search intensity, but increases in the level of GDP declines the job search intensity. Further, there is an inverse-U shaped relation between population density and job-search intensity.

Keywords: Unemployment, Job Search, Gender, Turkey

JEL Classification: J64, J16