Widening the job hunt. The effect of personalised labour market recommendations

Many job seekers search for a job in a profession for which there is little demand. Such people are hindered in broadening their job search scope by a lack of knowledge about suitable alternative professions, and other psychological barriers such as unrealistic optimism and uncertainty. We developed and evaluated a personalised e-mail campaign addressing these barriers.

The results of a controlled experiment show that job seekers who received the e-mail campaign found work more often, earned more, and spent more hours working 18 months after the campaign ended than job seekers who had not received it. Those who had received the campaign more often found work in occupations other than those in which they were initially interested, indicating the campaign was successful in broadening their job search scope.