Determinants of the Choice of Job Search Channels by the Unemployed Using a Multivariate Probit Model

We investigate factors affecting the job search channels (newspapers, agency, informal network, direct contact, internet) of unemployed individuals in Italy using a multivariate probit model. We separately analyse unemployed individuals who lost their job or who are entering the labour market for the first time (i.e., with or without previous job experience, respectively). We use cross-sectional microdata covering the 2014–2018 period. We do not find important differences in the determinants in common between unemployed individuals with and without previous job experience (such as, age, education, and citizenship). The main difference between the two samples is in the composition, with more young people in the latter group (mainly individuals in the school-to-work transition) than in the first one. We find that better-educated unemployed people have more of a multichannel attitude when searching for jobs than their counterparts. Moreover, for unemployed individuals with previous job experience, the characteristics of their last job play a crucial role in influencing the choice of search channel(s). For example, unemployed individuals from high-skilled professions (that typically require the employment of better-educated individuals) choose the internet with a higher probability than other channels, while those from low-skilled professions and with experience in manufacturing have a higher probability of considering employment agencies than those in qualified professions in commercial activities and services. We have assumed that the unobservable factors affecting the decision process of a multichannel job search (estimated through the pairwise correlation coefficients across the residuals of the models) are represented by personality features of an individual, such as motivation, self-control, and preferences. A strong, positive, and significant correlation is found between job searching through the internet and direct contact with firms, but with some spatial differences between macro-areas of the country.