ABSTRACT
The study of job search gained much attention in recent years, with a special concern about the effectiveness of different search methods in gaining employment (Granovetter 1973; Lin, Ensel, and Vaughn 1981; Holzer 1987; Montgomery 1992). Following Granovetter’s 1973 “strength of weak ties,” most of the theoretical and empirical work in the area focused on the distinction between formal (e.g., government agencies) and informal (e.g., friends) modes of job-search. The main focus in these studies was the transition from unemployment into gainful employment, while only few examined the relationship between the search strategy and outcomes in the labor market, such as wage and occupational status (Holzer 1987; 1988). While finding employment is no doubt the primary purpose of those looking for a job (i.e., the unemployed), it is still important to consider the quality of the gained employment. It had been argued that many of the unemployed enter jobs that are marginal in nature: jobs that are less stable; offer low levels of rewards; or require low level of skills (Heckman and Borjas, 1980; Sullivan 1978). Consequently, the unemployed may find themselves working in jobs that are inadequate in terms of work conditions and rewards, and for which the unemployed are often over-qualified. Thus, it may not be sufficient to define success in terms of gaining employment. Rather, it is important to examine the quality of the new job and its adequacy, and the factors that affect the prospects of the unemployed to find jobs that match their skills and offer 332satisfactory employment conditions. In the current study, we use Clogg and Sulivan’s (1983) Labor Quality Framework in order to extend the conventional definition of “success” in finding a job to include also some characteristics of the employment gained by the unemployed. In particular, we examine the relationship between job-search methods used by unemployed men and women and the quality of employment they acquire. That is, we ask not only to what extent a specific search method helps in gaining employment, but also whether the job acquired can be considered an adequate one.
