The role of exogenous macro shocks in shaping the appeal of government employment

Abstract

Studies of individuals’ attraction to work in the public sector overlook the likely effect of perturbations to the national-level context. Advancing this research agenda, this article examines whether and how a national crisis shapes attraction to government employment over other sectors. Drawing on the established “rally ‘round the flag effect,” we expect a national crisis to boost public sector attraction. Exploiting a three-wave survey, carried out in Israel before and after Hamas’s October 7 attack, we find a moderate increase in respondents’ preferences to work in government, alongside a larger increase in their attraction to nonprofits. Underlying respondents’ enhanced attraction to nonprofits is an increase in their PSM, whereas a decline in support for the coalition reduces interest in government employment. Additionally, the war amplifies the weight respondents assign to trust in government and PSM. Furthermore, respondents’ open-ended responses after the October 7 attack reveal the salience of job security concerns among those seeking government employment. These findings confirm that national crises change the calculation shaping job seekers’ sector preferences.