Macro Recruiting Intensity from Micro Data

We merge QCEW and JOLTS microdata to study the recruiting intensity of firms in the cross section and over time. Vast establishment-level heterogeneity in vacancy filling rates is entirely explained by differences in gross hiring rates. Through the lens of standard theory, we aggregate firm-level de...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inIDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc
Main Authors Mongey, Simon, Violante, Giovanni L
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 01.01.2019
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

Loading…
More Information
Summary:We merge QCEW and JOLTS microdata to study the recruiting intensity of firms in the cross section and over time. Vast establishment-level heterogeneity in vacancy filling rates is entirely explained by differences in gross hiring rates. Through the lens of standard theory, we aggregate firm-level decisions into an measure of aggregate recruiting intensity (ARI). Procyclicality of ARI is primarily due to cutting recruiting effort in slack labor markets. Given this we provide an ARI index easily computable from publicly available macroeconomic data. Declining ARI in the Great Recession accounted for much of the increase in unemployment, but little of its persistence.