Digital Tools to Help
Unemployed Workers

In a large-scale collaboration with researchers from the University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Business School, and the Danish labor market authorities, C-BEAM researcher Steffen Altmann studies how insights from economics and psychology can be leveraged to improve labor market prospects for unemployed workers, the functioning of labor market policy, and overall labor market performance.

Recent results from this collaboration shed light on the promises and potential pitfalls of online job search assistance. In a large-scale, countrywide field experiment implemented on the central online platform of the Danish employment agency, the research team studied how providing job seekers with vacancy information and personalized occupational recommendations affects their subsequent labor market outcomes. 

The results of the experiment show that online advice can be highly effective, significantly increasing employment, working hours, and labor earnings for job seekers. At the same time, the study highlights the danger of crowding out between job seekers: when online advice is implemented at scale for all job seekers, the resulting increase in competition for the same vacancies can undermine these positive effects. 

The project’s findings can help guide the design of personalized job search assistance programs in a way that supports those most in need while reducing negative indirect effects on other job seekers.