New RFBerlin Research Insight on "Duration Dependence in Finding a Job: Applications, Interviews, and Job Offers"

Rockwool Foundation Berlin has published a new Research Insight based on my paper Duration Dependence in Finding a Job: Applications, Interviews, and Job Offers (joint with Rafael Lalive, Aderonke Osikominu, Jeremy Zuchuat, and Josef Zweimüller).

The article presents new evidence on why job finding becomes harder the longer people remain unemployed. Using detailed administrative data from Switzerland that track job applications, interviews, and job offers over the unemployment spell, we show that more than half of the decline in job-finding chances is due to changing job seeker and employer behavior with unemployment duration, rather than only to differences in who remains unemployed.

The main driver is a sharp drop in job applications as unemployment lasts longer, reflecting growing worker discouragement. To a large extent, this discouragement stems from worsening the job opportunities, as employers increasingly discriminate against the long-term unemployed.

You can read the RFBerlin Research Insight here and the discussion paper here.