The search for good jobs: Youth Job Search and Job Quality

Over one third of the 420 million young people in Africa are unemployed. The Covid-19 pandemic has compounded this problem by disproportionately affecting youth globally and increasing youth unemployment. In this context, understanding how youth search for jobs and what drives their ability to find quality jobs is crucial. 

As part of the Morocco Employment Lab (MEL)’s research seminar series, Prof. Imran Rasul will present a recent study entitled “The search for good jobs: Evidence from a six-year field experiment in Uganda”. This study seeks to understand the origins of young people's job search behaviors in the labor market.

More specifically, this study examines how different labor market interventions impact youth in their search for employment. Namely, vocational training, matching youth to firms, and a combination of the two interventions. The authors highlight the fundamental but distinct roles of young people's skills and expectations in job search, the ways in which interventions cause youth to become optimistic or discouraged, and the importance of these factors for long run sorting in the labor market. 

The event will be presented in English with real-time translation into French.

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Speaker 

Imran Rasul, Professor of Economics at University College London