Employability among the long-term unemployed: A futile quest or worth the effort?

Searching for a Job on the Contemporary Labour Market: The Role of Dispositional Employability

“…However, the direction of the relationships implied by our model was specified in line with dominant employability models (e.g., Forrier, Sels, & Stynen, 2009;Vanhercke et al, 2014). Moreover, it is consistent with existing results on the causal relationships between personal characteristics and job search behaviour found in longitudinal studies (e.g., Koen, Klehe, & Van Vianen, 2013). Nevertheless, it would be interesting to probe the reverse and reciprocal relationships between dispositional employability and job search intensity using a longitudinal research design.…”

“…Consistent findings were also found in the Netherlands (Koen, Klehe, & Van Vianen, 2013) and Australia (McArdle et al, 2007). In contrast to these studies, the present study was conducted in a labour market characterized by high unemployment and a low number of job offers, thus enabling the generalization of previous findings to a different contextual setting.…”

“…Third, the present study encompasses two related, yet conceptually different notions of employability-dispositional (Fugate, 2006) and perceived employability approaches (De Cuyper et al, 2012a) and thus enables empirical testing of the most recent employability models (e.g., Vanhercke et al, 2014). Fourth, while both conceptualizations of employability have thus far been predominantly studied in samples of employed individuals, the present study supplements the few existing studies that investigate either dispositional (i.e., Koen, Klehe, & Van Vianen, 2013;McArdle et al, 2007) or perceived employability (i.e., Chen & Lim, 2012;Onyishi et al, 2015) among unemployed persons. Fifth, in contrast to the majority of previous studies examining job search antecedents, the present study was conducted in an economy characterized by high unemployment rates (19.5% or 333,249 unemployed registered persons), a small number of job vacancies (12,175) and consequently, low work mobility (The Croatian Employment Service, 2015a).…”

“…In addition, individuals with higher dispositional employability may be more likely to persist in job search behaviours when confronted with rejection, a lack of job vacancies, or other obstacles. Koen, Klehe and Van Vianen (2013) found that adaptability, operationalized as career exploration and planning, was positively related to job search intensity one year later, above and beyond the influence of various barriers (e.g., physical problems). McArdle et al (2007) found a positive relationship between dispositional employability and job search intensity in the context of the Australian labour market.…”

“…Second, unlike more general notions of proactivity (e.g., proactive personality), it is a domain specific construct anchored to the work and career context. For these reasons, we suggest that dispositional employability may represent a promising, yet understudied antecedent of job search behaviour in an unemployment setting (for two exceptions, see Koen, Klehe, & Van Vianen, 2013;McArdle et al, 2007). Accordingly, the first aim of this study is to examine the relationship between dispositional employability and job search behaviour among unemployed persons.…”