Browsing by Author "Ralefeta, Neo"

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    A study of gender differences in job finding strategies
    (University of the Witswatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06-30) Ralefeta, Neo; Posel, Dorrit
    Men and women in the South African labour market face different sets of challenges with women persistently having higher unemployment rates when compared to men. How they search for and find work is an important aspect of the country’s labour market and may inform policy solutions on how to address the large unemployment gaps between men and women. Active job searching is a costly exercise and individuals may use passive searching methods and rely on their social networks to connect them to job openings. This research report examines the differences in job finding strategies between adult men and women; it groups unemployed individuals into searching and non-searching categories and considers their individual and household characteristics. Using data from the National Income Dynamics study from years 2012 and 2014/2015, the study shows that there is a positive correlation between men’s search status and their employment outcomes. However, this is not the case for women whose employment outcomes are not influenced by whether they search for employment or not. For women, a negative correlation is found between social reproductive work and employment outcomes, and a positive correlation is found between educational attainment and employment outcomes. Social reproductive work hinders women more than men from actively searching for employment and being a female lowers the probability of finding employment. This research report contributes to the literature by providing a national analysis of gendered job searching strategies and employment outcomes by using recent nationally representative data.