Gender-age differences in hiring rates and prospective wages—Evidence from job referrals to unemployed workers

Author(s)
Omar Bamieh, Lennart Ziegler
Abstract

This paper uses matched worker-vacancy data to study gender differences in hiring outcomes of jobseekers in Austria. When registered at the public employment office, jobseekers are assigned caseworkers who refer them to suitable vacancies. Our findings show that female and male jobseekers are equally likely to get hired via such a referral, but it takes women longer to get a job offer. Most of the observed gender differences stem from younger jobseekers (below age 35) and are explained by rejections of employers. Young women are also less often hired for better-paying jobs. We argue that these differences are consistent with hiring discrimination against women in their fertile age. Our analysis shows that young female jobseekers are much more likely to go on parental leave in the future, while men almost never take extended parental leave. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that hiring differences are larger for jobs associated with higher replacement costs and smaller in tight labor markets.

Organisation(s)
Department of Economics
Journal
Labour Economics
Volume
83
ISSN
0927-5371
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102395
Publication date
08-2023
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
502002 Labour economics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Economics and Econometrics, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/genderage-differences-in-hiring-rates-and-prospective-wagesevidence-from-job-referrals-to-unemployed-workers(6a6bc366-01b8-416d-8a32-b184d1263d61).html