Connections and social capital, or why job vacancy information does not reach those who need it

Abstract

Between 50% and 60% of workers find jobs with information provided by friends, relatives, or acquaintances. In a network simulation, we study how the number of trajectories, through which vacancy information is transferred, evolves when a new node is added, taking into account their employment status, their social capital and their decision on whether or not to be an intermediary. The number of such trajectories falls with the number of new nodes, and also if they are unemployed, have low social capital or do not share vacancy information. The unemployed cluster with their peers, and the employed with their peers. Thus, vacancy information is not transferred to unemployed groups whose social capital links them with those who are different, unless they are connected by weak ties.