Internet and Traditional Job Search Methods , 1994 - 1999

In December 1998, 15 percent of unemployed jobseekers, and 7 percent of employed persons used the internet to look for a new job. Conditioning on internet access from home, internet job search rates rise to 50 percent of unemployed jobseekers and 15 percent of the employed. Only 9 percent of black, and 7 percent of Hispanic unemployed jobseekers conduct on-line job search, compared to 16 percent of whites. Statistically, this gap is completely explained by differential access to technology: conditional on home internet access, both black and Hispanic unemployed jobseekers are more likely than whites to search on line. Rather than abandoning other methods of job search, unemployed jobseekers who search on line are more likely to use other “traditional” job search methods than those who do not search on line. Over time, there is as yet little evidence that expanding internet use has changed the mix of “traditional” job search methods used by unemployed jobseekers. Contacts: Peter Kuhn, Department of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara CA 93106. tel 805 893 3666, email [email protected]. Mikal Skuterud, Department of Economics, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario Canada L8S 4M4. tel 905 525 9140, ext. 23814, email [email protected].