Recruiting Intensity, Hires, and Vacancies: Evidence from Firm-Level Data

44 Pages Posted: 3 Mar 2021

See all articles by Eliza Forsythe

Eliza Forsythe

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - School of Labor & Employment Relations; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Department of Economics

Russell Weinstein

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - School of Labor & Employment Relations; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Department of Economics

Abstract

We investigate employer recruiting behavior, using detailed firm-level data from a national survey of employers hiring recent college graduates. We show employers adjust recruiting effort, hiring standards, and compensation with the business cycle, beliefs about tightness, and their own hiring plans. We then show that firms expending greater recruiting effort hire more individuals per vacancy. The results suggest that when firms want to increase hires they adjust vacancies and recruiting intensity per vacancy, which may help explain the breakdown in the standard matching function during the Great Recession. Our measure of recruiting effort explains roughly 16% of the residual elasticity of the vacancy yield with respect to hires.

JEL Classification: J63, D20, E24

Suggested Citation

Forsythe, Eliza and Forsythe, Eliza and Weinstein, Russell, Recruiting Intensity, Hires, and Vacancies: Evidence from Firm-Level Data. IZA Discussion Paper No. 14138, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3794084 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3794084

Eliza Forsythe (Contact Author)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - School of Labor & Employment Relations ( email )

504 East Armory Avenue
Champaign, IL 61820-6297
United States

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/elizaforsythe/

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Department of Economics ( email )

410 David Kinley Hall
1407 W. Gregory
Urbana, IL 61801
United States

Russell Weinstein

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - School of Labor & Employment Relations ( email )

504 East Armory Avenue
Champaign, IL 61820-6297
United States

HOME PAGE: http://publish.illinois.edu/RussellWeinstein

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Department of Economics ( email )

410 David Kinley Hall
1407 W. Gregory
Urbana, IL 61801
United States

HOME PAGE: http://publish.illinois.edu/RussellWeinstein

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