Publication: Testing Job Matching Services for Unemployed Educated Youth in Jordan
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Date
2014-09
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2014-09
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This note tests the extent to which search and matching frictions are the cause of high levels of unemployment for educated youth in Jordan, and whether a job matching service can reduce unemployment.
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“Groh, Matthew; McKenzie, David; Shammout, Nour; Vishwanath, Tara. 2014. Testing Job Matching Services for Unemployed Educated Youth in Jordan. Finance & PSD impact;no. 30. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20429 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Testing the Importance of Search Frictions, Matching, and Reservation Prestige through Randomized Experiments in Jordan(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-09-01)Unemployment rates for tertiary-educated youth in Jordan are high, as is the duration of unemployment. Two randomized experiments in Jordan were used to test different theories that may explain this phenomenon. The first experiment tested the role of search and matching frictions by providing firms and job candidates with an intensive screening and matching service based on educational backgrounds and psychometric assessments. Although more than 1,000 matches were made, youth rejected the opportunity to even have an interview in 28 percent of cases, and when a job offer was received, they rejected this offer or quickly quit the job 83 percent of the time. A second experiment built on the first by examining the willingness of educated, unemployed youth to apply for jobs of varying levels of prestige. Youth applied to only a small proportion of the job openings they were told about, with application rates higher for higher prestige jobs than lower prestige jobs. Youth failed to show up for the majority of interviews scheduled for low prestige jobs. The results suggest that reservation prestige is an important factor underlying the unemployment of educated Jordanian youth.Publication Soft Skills or Hard Cash? The Impact of Training and Wage Subsidy Programs on Female Youth Employment in Jordan(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-07)Throughout the Middle East, unemployment rates of educated youth have been persistently high and female labor force participation, low. This paper studies the impact of a randomized experiment in Jordan designed to assist female community college graduates find employment. One randomly chosen group of graduates was given a voucher that would pay an employer a subsidy equivalent to the minimum wage for up to 6 months if they hired the graduate; a second group was invited to attend 45 hours of employability skills training designed to provide them with the soft skills employers say graduates often lack; a third group was offered both interventions; and the fourth group forms the control group. The analysis finds that the job voucher led to a 40 percentage point increase in employment in the short-run, but that most of this employment is not formal, and that the average effect is much smaller and no longer statistically significant 4 months after the voucher period has ended. The voucher does appear to have persistent impacts outside the capital, where it almost doubles the employment rate of graduates, but this appears likely to largely reflect displacement effects. 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