Job Search in the 21st Century

Abstract Formal job search has undergone massive transformations in the last two decades with the move to online platforms. This makes more stages of the job search process observable, and allows researchers to intervene in this market and improve the design of the job search process and the information available in it. This paper showcases studies that illustrate the potential of analyzing online job search data and of intervening in the online job search process. It presents the current insights and some open questions and highlights conditions under which some of the recent interventions are likely to improve market outcomes overall, rather than improving only the outcomes for the treated individuals.