Talking to role models: how experiences from previous job seekers can support occupational transitions

Access to a buddy platform

2022-11-04

2023-03-31

1. Employment status in months 1 to 18 after enrollment in the study
2. Job stability: the likelihood at each month 1 to 18 of having found a stable job (defined as lasting at least 6 months with at least 16 hours per week)
3. Cumulative and current labor earnings in months 1 to 18 after enrollment

- distance between new occupation and initial search occupation
- search behavior on the public employment platform (saved vacancies and applications).
- search behavior measured from survey responses

For search behavior measured from survey responses will we measure impacts on applications (per occupation), occupational breadth, willingness to consider other occupations, time spent searching, time spent exploring alternative occupations

Job seekers who search in occupations with poor job finding prospects were recruited through email and were asked to express interest in joining the platform. 6048 job seekers received an email asking them to express interest. Out of those who did, a randomly selected subset will be offered access to the platform.

The experiment will consist of matching job seekers who search in occupations with poor job finding prospects (identified by a low `job finding score’; a metric computed by the Dutch employment Office) with former job seekers who have successfully changed occupations, which we refer to as `buddies’. For this purpose, an online platform was designed and developed. Buddies were recruited through a survey that was part of a previous experiment (https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/7374) and LinkedIn. 40 buddies have registered on the platform as of the 27th of October, 2022. Recruitment is still ongoing.

Sample of job seekers: Job seekers were recruited through email and were asked to express interest in joining the platform if they met the following criteria
(1) Were registered to search primarily in one of 31 selected occupations with poor job finding prospects,
(2) Have completed their online resume,
(3) Have sufficient written and spoken Dutch language skills,
(4) Have at least 90 days of unemployment benefits rights left and
6048 job seekers received an email asking them to express interest in participating on the platform. Of this group, 353 job seekers have expressed interest as of the 27th of October, 2022. Recruitment is still ongoing.

Job seekers who have expressed interest form the sample for this experiment. Within this sample, a number of job seekers (50% of the sample, with a maximum of 5 times the number of buddies on the platform) will be randomly selected to receive a link to create an account on the platform. On the platform, job seekers will be able to search through a list of 7 randomly selected buddies.

The impact of platform access will be evaluated using (i) administrative data on job finding and earnings, (ii) job search activities on a public job search website, (iii) a pre- and a post-intervention survey on job search behavior and (iv) exit surveys on the occupation of the new job.
The administrative data (i) and the job search activities (ii) will be provided by the Dutch employment office. The pre-intervention survey will be sent to all individuals on the 28th of October 2022. The post-intervention survey will be sent to all individuals around 4 to 5 weeks after the start of the intervention. The exit surveys will be sent at 3-month intervals starting after the intervention is completed, to all individuals that have (according to the employment office’s records) found a new job.

Note: as the degree of use on the platform is still uncertain at the time of writing this preregistration, we may invite additional job seekers onto the platform. We will do this as long as the capacity of buddies has not yet been reached, up to the point where half of the sample is in the treatment group.

Randomization is performed by the research team using a computer

individual

No

350

350

175 individuals in control group, 175 individuals in treatment group

see pre-analysis plan