Startup Labor Markets and Remote Work: Evidence from Job Applications

Abstract

Does offering remote work allow startup firms to attract more experienced and more diverse (gender and race) talent? We examine job listings and job applicant behavior on a leading platform in this space, AngelList Talent, amid the COVID-19 pandemic-induced shutdowns. We first characterize the jobs and organizations offering remote work before the shutdowns. We then leverage the context to help address the empirical confound of job design (including offering remote jobs) as co-determined with unobserved job and firm characteristics. By doing so, we estimate the change in applicant characteristics to job postings which are (exogenously) shifted to being remote. This design is a window into evaluating a managerial choice (offering remote work) which will likely become more salient in post-pandemic job design. We find that offering remote-eligible work attracts more experienced and diverse job applicants.

Keywords: remote work; startup labor market; talent acquisition; diversity and inclusion; COVID-19; technical workforce.