Job Search and Matching by Race and Gender.

Abstract

This is an empirical investigation of data from a large firm that provided information on all job applications, interview selection, offers, acceptances and job spell durations and wages within the firm over a 5 year period. Our analysis of the data shows that African Americans and women engage in more overt job search activity within the firm than Caucasian males, attain shorter tenure on each job, and experience slower wage growth. Furthermore, there are noticeable differences across race and gender at each stage of the application process. In particular, African Americans are more likely to apply for positions when they do not meet the minimal qualifications posted in the notification advertising the job vacancy, and both African Americans and women are more likely to withdraw from the application process. African Americans are less likely to be interviewed for a position, but also more likely to receive a job offer conditional on being interviewed. To explain these empirical patterns, we develop and estimate a model of two sided search and matching, in which positions become vacant when the current occupant of the job leaves, the firm begins a search process by advertising the position, and workers employed both inside and outside the organization apply for the newly vacated position. Workers choose their intensity of job search by setting a threshold above which they would accept a job offer. The applicants are culled during a hiring process that lead both parties to become more informed about the potential job match with each applicant. We assume that a hiring committee, consisting of firm employees, chooses who to interview and the firm chooses who to hire; this distinction follows the data which shows different preferences at these stages. We will use the model counterfactuals to help understand how differences across racial and gender groups in job search and matching play out in wages, spell duration and job turnover over the lifecycle. (with Rebecca Lessem )