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Searching for a job is an important process that influences short- and long-term career outcomes as well as well-being and psychological health. As such, job search research has grown tremendously over the last two decades. In this chapter, the authors provide an overview of prior research, discuss important trends in current research, and suggest areas for future research. The authors conceptualize the job search as an unfolding process (i.e., a process through which job seekers navigate through stages to achieve their goal of finding and accepting a job) in which job seekers engage in self-regulation behaviors. The authors contrast research that has taken a between-person, static approach with research that has taken a within-person, dynamic approach and highlight the importance of combining between- and within-person designs in order to have a more holistic understanding of the job search process. Finally, authors provide some recommendations for future research. Much remains to be learned about what influences job search self-regulation, and how job self-regulation influences job search and employment outcomes depending on individual, contextual, and environmental factors.

This study aims to examine the relationship between job search self‐efficacy, employment goals, job search planning, job search behaviors and effort allocated to job search.

The authors expected that employment goals would mediate the effect of job search self‐efficacy on job search planning, job search behaviors and effort allocated to job search. In total, 100 participants completed measures of these concepts. The results are discussed with reference to previous studies and to methodological choices.

Regression analyses did not confirm the hypotheses. Contrary to expectations, employment goals did not mediate the path between self‐efficacy, job search planning, job search behaviors and effort allocated to job search. Instead, self‐efficacy directly influenced job search planning and job search behaviors.

Few studies have investigated the effect of self‐efficacy on goals in job search domain. This paper fills some of the gaps.

This paper aims to analyze the role of social networks on the job search choices of the unemployed. If social networks convey useful information in the job search process, individuals with larger networks should experience a higher productivity of informal search channels. This in turn affects the choice of formal search intensity and the reservation wage. The paper seeks to test these search‐theoretic implications of productive social networks empirically.

The authors use the IZA Evaluation Dataset containing detailed information on job search behavior of recently unemployed individuals. Observing a rich array of personality traits and direct measures of the social network, the authors choose an identification approach based on observable characteristics using least squares and binary probit regression analysis.

The findings confirm theoretical expectations. Individuals with larger networks use informal search channels more often and shift from formal to informal search. In addition to that, evidence is found for a positive relationship between network size and reservation wages.

The extent to which networks are used during job search most likely also depends on the quality of the network, which cannot be observed in the data. However, as the network significantly changes the observable formal job search effort of individuals, public job search monitoring policies should take these effects into account.

The paper complements the previous body of literature on the role of social networks in the labor market that predominantly focuses on labor market outcomes. By highlighting the interaction between networks and job search choices the paper improves the understanding of realized labor market outcomes in the presence of networks.

The purpose of this paper is to test a process model of coping with job loss by examining the impact of distal to proximal variable sets for incrementally explaining two distinct subjective well‐being variables: life satisfaction and unemployment stigma. A second purpose is to test for mean differences between study scales for increasingly long‐term unemployed individuals.

A unique sample of unemployed victims completed an online survey investigating the impact of six variable sets on life satisfaction and unemployment stigma. These sets fall within the McKee‐Ryan et al. taxonomy and included: human capital and demographics; personal and financial coping resources; cognitive appraisal; escape‐focused coping; problem‐focused coping; and job search effort.

Results partially supported the hypothesized variable set impact order on both life satisfaction and unemployment stigma. In addition some significant differences on study variables were found comparing four unemployed groups: up to six months; and three progressively long‐term unemployed groups, i.e. seven to 12 months; 13 to 24 months; and over 24 months, with the over 24 month unemployed respondents (23 per cent of the sample) suffering the most.

The cross‐sectional self‐report study research design is the foremost limitation. However, given the challenges of collecting unemployment related‐data on such a diverse sample, the unemployment agency/job services recent‐job‐loss‐respondent longitudinal data collection approach used in previous research was not an option. The one‐factor test found that only 15 per cent of “common method variance” was explained by the first factor, suggesting that this is not an overriding limitation. Survey constraints necessitated using shortened validated scales in several instances. However, the authors did select the highest loading items when shortening scales and such scales were generally reliable.

Implications of study results for careers and steps to prevent longer‐term unemployment are discussed. There seemed to be a general “disconnect” between unemployed respondent self‐ratings of positive skill assessment, networking comfort, and proactive search, all of which were fairly high, against recent behavioral job search which was lower. This disconnect suggests that it may be hard for many unemployed to objectively look at their job search process.

A unique unemployed sample, primarily executives, middle managers and professional, salaried individuals, with most being longer‐term unemployed, was utilized. Initial psychometric support for several new scales was found, including unemployment stigma and behavioral job search. This study represented a fairly comprehensive test of the McKee‐Ryan et al. taxonomy for correlates of psychological well‐being during unemployment specifically applied to life satisfaction and unemployment stigma. An innovative on‐line data collection approach, snowball sampling, was used.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the understanding of self-regulation during job search by integrating goal-orientation theory with a resource allocation framework.

The author surveyed job searching new labor market entrants at two time points and hypothesized that the effects of job seekers’ state goal orientations on indicators of self-regulation during the job search process (procrastination, anxiety, and guidance-seeking behaviors) depended on levels of employment goal commitment (EGC).

Results indicate that for job seekers with higher levels of EGC, a state learning-approach goal orientation (LGO) was beneficial for the job search process and a state performance-approach goal orientation (PGO) was detrimental. For job seekers with lower levels of EGC, a state LGO was detrimental to the search process, while a state PGO was beneficial.

This research extends the understanding of state goal orientation in the context of job search. Future research may replicate these findings with different samples of employed and unemployed job seekers and extend this research with additional conceptualizations of resource limitations.

The present research suggests that the effectiveness of learning-approach goal-orientation training methods in the context of job search must be considered in light of individual differences in resource availability. In particular, individuals with lower resources available for job searching may benefit from interventions focusing on increasing state PGO.

The present results suggest that EGC is an important moderator of the impact of job search goal orientation on indicators of self-regulation during job search, and therefore present important boundary conditions regarding the role of state goal orientation in the job search process.

Labor market programs may affect unemployed individuals' behavior before they enroll. The aim of this paper is to study whether such ex ante effects differ according to ethnic origin.

The authors apply a method that relates self‐reported perceived treatment rates and job search behavioral outcomes, such as the reservation wage or search intensity, to each other. German native workers are compared with migrants with a Turkish origin or Central and Eastern European (including Russian) background. Job search theory is used to derive theoretical predictions. The ex ante effect of the German active labor market program (ALMP) system is examined using the novel IZA Evaluation Data Set which includes self‐reported assessments of the variables of interest as well as an unusually detailed amount of information on behavior, attitudes and past outcomes.

It is found that the ex ante threat effect on the reservation wage and search effort varies considerably among the groups considered.

The study is the first to investigate whether migrants and natives react similarly to the expectation of participating in an ALMP, and whether migrants of different regions of origin react similarly or not.

Macroeconomic data are examined to identify the factors which influence the job search duration of American workers during the 1970s and 1980s. Among the factors investigated, the overall unemployment rate and personal characteristics of job seekers emerge as more important influences on search time than the techniques used to find work. Instead of relying entirely upon longitudinal micro data or special survey data to test the job search model, readily available macro data series are utilised. A policy implication which may be drawn from the study is that government programmes which intervene into the personal lives of the unemployed are appropriate. Basic education and vocational training as well as job search assistance are suggested for less well‐educated and inexperienced labour‐force participants.

Research suggests that both internal and external resources are important in determining the level and intensity of job search behaviors among unemployed individuals. Specifically, an external resource, social support, and an internal resource, self‐efficacy, can have positive, facilitative effects on job search efforts. While these relationships are well‐established, the psychological mechanisms that explain the link between these resources and job search behaviors are unclear. This paper aims to explore positive coping and distancing as potential mediators of this linkage in an African‐American sample.

Participants responded to a survey containing the variables of interest at two job fairs in the Southeastern USA (n=223). Of participants, 70 percent were female and the average age was 39. In total, 37 percent of respondents had an undergraduate degree or a more advanced degree, and the average length of unemployment was 9.9 months.

Results suggest that the effects of both social support and self‐efficacy on job searches may be due to their impact on positive coping behaviors, which in turn are significantly related to increased search behaviors. Thus, positive coping had a consistent mediational role in explaining how higher levels of social support and more favorable levels of self‐efficacy enhance the intensity of two forms of job search behaviors. Distancing coping had a less significant and less consistent role as a mediator.

This suggests that interventions meant to enhance self‐efficacy and social support of job seekers may have positive effects on actively applying for jobs and on enlisting the help of others in finding jobs among African‐Americans, as well as on the positive coping skills of the unemployed. Interventions should strive to increase these resources while simultaneously providing realistic expectations regarding the probability of finding a job well‐suited for the job seeker. This argues for the potential effectiveness of individually formulated plans for securing employment.

The paper emphasizes the importance of coping strategies used by unemployed individuals as a factor in job search intensity.

This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of verbal self‐guidance (VSG) and self‐management on youth employability. It seeks to access the joint effectiveness of these interventions, grounded in social cognitive and goal setting theories, for youth job seekers.

The studies used experimental designs involving participants enrolled in an undergraduate business cooperative degree program. Survey data assessing self‐efficacy and anxiety were collected pre and post‐training. Interview performance was also assessed in each study.

In study 1, it was found that students trained in self‐management and verbal self‐guidance (SMVSG) improved interview performance and reduced anxiety. In study 2, it was found that self‐efficacy and job search effort were higher in the SMVSG group relative to VSG alone.

For study 1, the only measure of employment was a mock interview. For study 2, a limitation was that approximately 25 per cent of participants failed to either complete the post‐training survey or attend the interview.

Overall the studies describe a relatively simple and low cost training intervention, and associated performance measures, that can continue to be used by practitioners and scholars with future groups of youth job seekers.

The paper shows that these studies further support the effectiveness of VSG‐based interventions for employability. The paper also shows the value of augmenting VSG training with self‐management training in the context of youth employability. Furthermore, this research also considered anxiety, a key variable in successful employment that has often been omitted in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the key determinants of employability of information technology (IT) graduates in Vietnam and examines their impact on self-perceived employability and the duration of the job search.

This study is based on data collected from the responses to an online survey from more than 500 IT graduates from different higher education institutions in Vietnam. Employability, its outcome and its key determinants were integrated into one model. Exploratory factor, confirmatory factor and path analyses were conducted to test the model by means of structural equation modeling.

The self-perceived employability of IT graduates in Vietnam was determined by graduates’ English language skills, soft skills, adaptability skills, the quality of the institution’s IT program and job seeking efforts. Results also indicated that work experience, professional competencies and employability made the job search duration shorter, but job seeking efforts made job search duration longer.

Only determinants from individual and institutional aspects were considered, and the sample was also limited to one profession in one country.

Results can inform students and educators about the improvable areas of employability enhancement.

This study fills a gap in the employability research by providing a quantitative explanation about relationships among the employability, the job search duration and their key predictors from different aspects.