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RCTReview
Public employment counselors frequently fail to place jobseekers in long-term jobs when recommending candidates to firms with which the agency has no prior operational relationship or context regarding hiring needs.
Picture this
It is like a matchmaker trying to arrange a date. A matchmaker who knows both individuals well can set up a successful long-term couple, whereas setting up total strangers based on superficial resume traits usually leads to a failed first date.
What the evidence says
Net permanent hiring gains were entirely concentrated among firms with prior agency contact (+0.124 permanent hires of registered jobseekers, p = 0.021; +0.116 quality hires staying off unemployment for >=12 months, p = 0.045), whereas firms without baseline contact experienced no significant hiring impact (-0.005 hires, p = 0.435).
- Who was studied
- N = 7,438 French firms (39% with baseline pre-intervention agency contact, 61% with no prior contact).
- How
- Heterogeneity analysis within a randomized controlled trial comparing placement outcomes across firms with and without baseline counselor interactions (phone, visits, agency meetings).
What to do
Focus intensive public placement and pre-selection services on employer accounts that have established communication histories with public employment counselors before launching cold recruitment outreach.
From the source
"In contrast we find that employment creation is completely centered on firms that were previously in contact with the PES. We find average treatment effects very close to zero for firms which were not formerly in contact with PES counselors. But for firms which were, we detect large significant effects: +0.124 hires of registered jobseekers in permanent contracts and we reject the null of equal impacts (p-value of 2.1%)."
Are_Active_Labor_Market_Policies_Directed_at_Firms_Effective_Evidence.pdf