Traditional recruitment networks restrict the pool of workers available to firms and may limit hiring. Job portals can ease these frictions, but firms unaccustomed to recruiting online may be hesitant to hire unfamiliar candidates. We show that firms are significantly more likely to fill a vacancy - across all recruitment methods - when they receive interventions allowing them to attract skilled applicants and screen them on a portal. These interventions jointly induce firms to engage with unfamiliar applicants and increase portal-based hiring. Portal-based hires are retained beyond the standard assessment period, suggesting these firms successfully recruited suitable matches outside their networks.
STEG Working Paper Series
• Research Theme 2: Labour, Home Production, and Structural Transformation at the Level of the Household
Hiring Frictions and the Promise of Online Job Portals: Evidence from India
A. Nilesh Fernando, Niharika Singh, and Gabriel Tourek
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