Fishing in Different Pools: Job Search Strategies and Job-Finding Success in Canada in the Early 1980s.

This article examines the job-search methods of jobless workers and emphasizes sample selectivity in choice of job-search strategies (especially use of public employment agencies). Longitudinal data from the Labour Force Survey of Canada for 1981, 1983, and 1986 indicate that job-search methods change with the business cycle and that many people find jobs without any reported search. The determinants of job-search success also vary substantially over the business cycle, implying a substantial social return to public employment agencies at the 1983 trough of the recession but no noticeable benefits when aggregate unemployment is relatively low. Copyright 1993 by University of Chicago Press.