Example of Job Search

Joe Blough has a chance for six interviews this week. He can rank them from number 1, the best opportunity (good wages, good conditions, good chance of getting the job) to number 6 (only fair job, little chance of getting the offer). After the first four interviews Joe is feeling pretty bagged out, and decides to skip them and head for the shore. (The marginal benefit of the next interview is less than the opportunity cost of giving up his leisure).

Time passes. It's a year later, and there's a recession, and unemployment is high, and Joe's little brother Irving has to compete with a lot more workers for fewer interview opportunities. He has only three prospects -- roughly the same as Joe's numbers 2, 4, and 6 last year. Irving goes for all three interviews. Nevertheless, on the whole, Irving's chances of a job out of his week of search are not as good as Joe's were a year earlier when times were better.

In a sense, Irving isn't "searching" as hard as Joe did -- Joe went to four interviews and Irving has been to only three. But in another sense, Irving is "searching" harder -- he's going to interview number 6, which Joe skipped. Why does he do that?

1. Because, having only been to two other interviews, he's not as tired (effort cost is lower) and
2. He's more desperate for a job (marginal benefit is greater).

• Because of the recession, Irving has fewer opportunities for job search.
• To some extent, he has made up for that by accepting interviews of a quality that Joe felt able to pass up; but
• Despite this concession, Irving has spent less time and effort on search, overall, and has less chance of a job, so
• The productivity of job search can depend as much on the dimension of opportunity as on the dimension of effort or on the passage of time.

Fishing for a Job