Job search success and employability in local labor markets

Abstract

This paper considers the relationship between an unemployed person's employability and job search success. Using a broad employability framework (covering individual, personal and external demand, and other factors) the paper considers a range of demand and supply factors, that were generally identified in applied and theoretical literature, that influence success in getting employment. The model is then used to consider the competing efficient metropolitan labor market and the local labor demand hypotheses in terms of the importance for this sample of skills mismatch and spatial mismatch. The findings suggest that professional qualifications, "soft" verbal skills and using speculative applications to employers were significantly associated with job search success. Length of unemployment, age, and having last worked in a manual occupation were negatively associated with job success, the latter decreasing the odds of getting a job to around thirty percent, suggesting difficulties in occupational "switching" for many job seekers. Higher academic qualifications were also significantly negative, as were those claiming that promotion chances will influence their reservation wage. The geographic accessibility to local jobs was significantly and positively associated with job search success. The results suggest that a range of employability factors and both skills mismatch and spatial mismatch are important in explaining job search success. The degree of "skills" or "spatial" mismatch in a local labor market will be contingent upon the characteristics of the local economy, employers, job seekers and the jobs being considered

From “spatial bond” to “spatial mismatch”: An assessment of changing jobs–housing relationship in Beijing

“…Moreover, as the standard SMH focuses exclusively on the way that low-skilled minority workers residing in inner cities are affected by distant job locations, more and more authors prefer the expression spatial/skill mismatch to depict the spatial disconnection between the residential locations of inner-city minorities and the locations of the low-skilled service sector and manufacturing jobs in the suburb (Gobillon et al, 2007). Empirical studies on SMH by Bauder and Perle (1999), Immwegluck (1998), McQuaid (2006, Ong and Blumenberg (1998) all confirm that a disadvantage for blacks exists as a combination of spatial and skill mismatches.…”

Commuting times – The role of gender, children and part-time work

“…The importance of labour demand and urban form are widely recognised as influencing commuting directly (Manaugh et al, 2010;McQuaid et al, 2001;McQuaid 2006) and may also indirectly influence commuting, for instance through wages. In Switzerland Kriesi et al (2010) found that job opportunities were strongly dependent on occupational credentials whereas educational attainment played a minor part.…”

Challenges in strengthening the Communication and Behavioral skills for greater employability of engineering students: A study of NCR Delhi (India)

“…In the workplace, a study by Purcell and colleagues (2002) [19] highlighted the particular importance some employers place on generic skills (such as communication skills and team-working). The findings of McQuaid, (2006 ) [15] suggest that professional qualifications, -soft‖ verbal skills and using speculative applications to employers were significantly related to job search success. Gracia, L. (2009) [8], has recognized, sandwich participation and employer's involvement in course design and delivery are positively associated with an occupation-based measure of the quality of initial employment found by graduates.…”