Hiring costs and labor market tightness

Mühlemann, Samuel und Leiser, Mirjam Strupler (2018): Hiring costs and labor market tightness. In: Labour Economics, Bd. 52: S. 122-131

Abstract

We provide new empirical evidence on the magnitude and determinants of a firm's hiring costs when filling a vacancy for skilled workers. In Switzerland, the average hiring costs amount to about 16 weeks of wage payments. The main components of hiring costs are post-match hiring costs, resulting from the initial low productivity and formal training needed for a new hire (53%), and disruption costs, resulting from the informal instruction of a new hire (26%). Pre-match hiring costs (i.e., search costs) account for just 21% of a firm's hiring costs. Moreover, we find that search costs are positively associated with labor market tightness (i.e., the v/u ratio), both in the cross-section and over time. Our results will help to calibrate the hiring cost parameter in search models.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Betriebswirtschaft > Institut für Wirtschaftspädagogik
• Themengebiete: 300 Sozialwissenschaften > 330 Wirtschaft
• ISSN: 0927-5371
• Sprache: Englisch