The Impacts of an Online Job Fair in Bangladesh

The intervention is an online job fair for ICT jobs at entry to junior levels. Jobseekers can view and apply for jobs before and during the fair; attend employers’ live presentations; and interview for jobs during and after the fair. All activities take place online through the job fair portal website.

Note. In the same job fair, we run another RCT on a preference signaling mechanism that allows jobseekers to express their interest to employers. This RCT is registered as another study in AEA registry.

2021-11-09

2021-11-11

[All jobseekers]
- Being employed

Note. Analyses on the outcome variables for those employed and those looking for jobs will be restricted to subsamples and hence descriptive.

[All jobseekers]
- Reservation wage and aspired wage in 5 years
- Life satisfaction
- Whether looking for a job in last 4 weeks

[Those who are employed]
- Employment quality: (i) whether the current job is fulltime or parttime; (ii) being employed for a wage job except day laborer, intern, probational job, and contractor; (iii) whether the wage job is based on a written contract
- Job match quality: (i) monthly earnings; (ii) hourly wage; (iii) how often worker’s skills are used; (iv) how well worker’s skills fits his/her job; (v) whether a worker is under- or over-qualified; (vi) how interesting the current job is; (vii) how satisfied a worker is with his/her current job; (viii) job tenure

[Those who look for jobs]
- Self-perceived job search prospects: the percent chance of finding a full-time job within 6 months

We will create indices of employment quality and job match quality.

1. Recruitment and randomization of jobseekers:
1-1. Bdjobs.com send recruitment emails to its users with 0-6 years of experience and also students in ICT-related universities and vocational training programs. The emails advertise the job fair and include an online application URL through which interested jobseekers apply for the fair.

1-2. Based on the online applications submitted by interested jobseekers, we identify jobseekers eligible for this study. The eligibility criteria are (a) that the education level attained or currently enrolled is the university diploma or higher, (b) that a digital device (computer, tablet, or smartphone) and internet access necessary to join the online job fair are available, and (c) that a jobseeker has a Bdjobs.com user account, which is free. If a jobseeker does not have the account, s/he is redirected to a signup page at Bdjobs.com when s/he submits the job fair application.

1-3. We randomly assign eligible jobseekers into the treatment and control groups. The randomization is stratified by geographical divisions.

2. Recruitment and an online baseline survey of employers: By reaching out to firms that are using Bdjobs.com, Bdjobs.com recruits 110 firms interested to participate in the job fair. Each firm advertises one ICT job position at the entry to junior level. All interested firms are requested to take an online baseline survey, and a total of 104 firms submit the survey. Unfortunately, one firm eventually drops out, although its job opening is advertised on the job fair website and receives job applications.

3. Activities prior to the job fair
3-1. Bdjobs.com informs treatment jobseekers, via email, phone, and push notification, that they are selected to the job fair. Then, treatment jobseekers log into the job fair website, browse job openings, and apply for jobs. Note that while anyone can access the website, only treatment jobseekers are allowed to apply for jobs.

3-2. Employers review job applications and, if they want, invite applicants to job interviews. Note that employers can review job applications and schedule interviews during and after the job fair.

4. Activities during the job fair
4-1. 41 employers hold live presentation sessions which can be attended by any treatment jobseekers. Note that it is not mandatory for employers to hold a live presentation session.
4-2. Jobseekers apply for jobs during the fair and until one day after it.
4-3. Employers review job applications and interview candidates. They continue their selection after the job fair.

5. Endline surveys
We will conduct the 1st and 2nd endline surveys approximately 2 and 9 months after the job fair, respectively. The modes of surveys are phone for jobseekers and in-person (or zoom and phone if an in-person survey is infeasible) for employers. The survey samples are all treatment and control jobseekers and all participating employers.

Notes:
- The job fair is free for jobseekers and firms. There are no fees for registration, job application, and job posting.

Randomization done in Stata

Jobseekers

No

2556 jobseekers

2556 jobseekers

Treatment jobseekers: 1280
Control jobseekers: 1276