Abstract
This paper examines the role of informal job search methods on the labour market outcomes of displaced workers. Informal job search methods could alleviate short-term labour market difficulties of displaced workers by providing information on job opportunities, allowing them to signal their productivity and may mitigate wage losses through better post-displacement job matching. However if displacement results from reductions in demand for specific sectors/skills, the use of informal job search methods may increase the risk of job instability. While informal job search methods are associated with lower wage losses, they lead to increased job instability and increased risk of subsequent job displacement.
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Notes
A shortcoming of SEUP is that its relatively brief length makes it impossible to explore issues that are clearly important such as longer term wage dynamics or career problems related to job search methods.
Also SEUP does not contain any information on plant closures or mass layoffs.
One key shortcoming of SEUP is that its relatively short length makes it impossible to explore issues that are clearly important such as longer term wage dynamics or career profiles related to job search methods.
Furthermore, in the case that wage/salary earnings were reported it is not clear whether self-employed were receiving other remuneration, such as profits, from their employment.
Although some care must be taken due to the imprecision of some of these point estimates.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to the editor, Robert Newman and an anonynmous referee for comments which helped to improve the paper. I would also like to thank Garry Barrett, John Heywood, Gareth Leeves, Paul Miller and Ian Walker who have provided comments on previous versions of the paper.
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Green, C.P. Short Term Gain, Long Term Pain. J Labor Res 33, 337–352 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-012-9136-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12122-012-9136-y