Economics Stack Exchange Archive

What do economists say about the fact that employers seem to have a huge advantage when it comes to filling jobs as opposed to job seekers

• posted by: Shane Wealti on 2011-10-29
• tagged: markets, unemployment
• score: 2

Based on my understanding of the job market in the United States, firms looking to hire are at a great advantage compared to people seeking employment for the following reasons:

• Employers can get much better data on prevailing wage rates and benefits.
• Employers generally don’t have to worry about negative consequences of not filling a job immediately while unemployed, or employed people looking for a new job can’t afford to be picky.
• High unemployement

…among others.

This seems like it would lead to a very slanted job market in favor of employers because employers don’t have to do much competing for employees. Obviously, the job market is segmented with people with certain in-demand skills able to leverage that when looking for a job, but I’m talking about the larger segment of the job market which does not include those people. Also, many of these factors slant the job market in favor of the employer even when unemployment is at normal levels.

Is such a market operating efficiently? If not, what can be done to make it more efficient, hopefully to the benefit of both employers looking for new hires and people looking for jobs?

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