• Alex Savin
• March 25, 2022
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The Evaluation of Unemployment and Job-searching Behaviour

Unemployment is a serious problem in almost all countries in the world. It signifies many faults like bad economics, politics, poverty, and bad education management. It also leads to many non-financial problems like social issues and depression. It has a huge influence on job-searching behavior.

Unemployment is a Problem of Modern Society

Unemployment (or joblessness), as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and have actively sought work within the past four weeks. The unemployment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment. It is calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals currently in the labor force.

The behavior of unemployed persons was studied in the framework of the general value-expectancy model (Feather, 1982), which states that finding a job is affected by job-searching behavior, which is, in turn, influenced by the intention to look for a job. This intention is then affected by satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the current state of unemployment. The satisfaction or dissatisfaction with being unemployed is hypothesized to be affected by the personal gains of employment and the presence of particular features of the specific situation, such as variation and the amount of money one can spend. The model was tested and cross-validated by LISREL and logit analysis with a longitudinal sample of 232 young, Dutch, unemployed persons. The results largely confirm the hypotheses concerning the determinants of motivation for looking for a job and job-seeking behavior. However, there was no link between the variables in the model and finding a job.

A motivational, self-regulatory conceptualization of job search was used to organize and investigate the relationships between personality, expectancies, self, social, motive, and biographical variables and individual differences in job search behavior and employment outcomes. Meta-analytic results indicated that all antecedent variables, except optimism, were significantly related to job search behavior, with estimated population correlations ranging from –.15 to .46. As expected, job search behavior was significantly and positively associated with finding employment. Several antecedents of job search were also very related to employment success, although the size of these relationships was consistently smaller than those obtained for job search. Moderator analyses showed significant differences in the size of variable relationships for a type of job search measure (effort vs. intensity) and sample type (job loser vs. employed job seeker vs. new entrant).

Unemployment and Mental Health

Using longitudinal data, the current study examined the relation between mental health and unemployment. It was assumed that these concepts would mutually influence each other, while the perceived characteristics of the situation of being unemployed affect mental health. Mental health may also influence the intention to look for a job, the amount and type of job-searching behavior, and the chances of finding a job. Drawing on partly longitudinal data from 229 unemployed Dutch youth, a model relating mental health, perceptions of the unemployment situation, job-searching behaviors, and employment status was tested using structural equation modeling and logistic regression analysis. While the expectations were largely supported, there were also several unexpected results. Most notably, participants who felt powerless were more likely to be active job seekers. At the same time, only mental health (and not job-seeking behavior) was (weakly) related to the likelihood of finding a job.

Using a sample of recent retirees, the study described here sought to test the general propositions of the Wanberg, Watt, and Rumsey (1996) model by: 

• (a) including specific variables that are likely to be relevant to older adults seeking work after retirement (bridge employment), and 
• (b) integrating more recent variable groups (e.g., situational constraints) suggested by recent research (e.g., Wanberg, Kanfer, & Rotundo (1999) and Kanfer, Wanberg, & Kantrowitz (2001). 

Generally, the results support the efficacy of the Wanberg et al. model to predict job-seeking among this group. Biographical variables such as older worker job search constraints, self-evaluations (e.g., job-seeking self-efficacy), and motive/social variables (e.g., social support) were related to job seeking. Some of these, however, were not in the expected direction. Similarities and differences between “regular” job seeking and bridge employment seeking are discussed.

Conclusion

Being jobless influences one’s state of mind and mental health. People feeling powerless can go to two extremes: start searching for jobs vigorously or lose interest completely. However, their mental state does not have a huge influence on getting a job.