Comment êtes-vous entré(e) dans votre entreprise ? Les enseignements des enquêtes Emploi 2003-2011

This paper deals with the first interactions between employers and job-seekers on the labour market, relying on the INSEE's French labour force surveys from 2003 to 2011. Five channels are distinguished: direct applications, social networks (word of mouth), public agencies, job advertisements and re-hires. As respondents were interviewed for six consecutive semesters, information about job-finding channel in period t could be compared to information about job-search channels in period t-1. This allows us to distinguish between the "activation's logic" of a channel (which profiles of applicants have searched through a given channel) and the "selection's logic" (which profiles are over or under represented among people who have searched and found a job through a given channel). For example, women are less likely than men to find their job via social networks because they are less likely to search via this route (activation's logic). By contrast, young people are used to reading job adverts more often than the others but they are less likely to find their job via this channel (selection's logic). In addition, the regional rate of unemployment impacts the way employers and job-seekers first interact. Direct job finding channels like direct applications and re-hires are correlated with increasing rate of unemployment while the presence of a matchmaker is associated with lower rate.