26/2020 Lena Hensvik, Thomas Le Barbanchon and Roland Rathelot

The COVID-19 crisis has increased the number of job seekers, and reduced the number of jobs available. If job seekers continued to search in the same way they did before the crisis, these two facts combined would create more competition for any given job. More competition for jobs means that job seekers will take a longer time to find a job, but also that employers will find it easier to fill their vacancies. The latter is favourable to the labour market: if hiring is easier, employers will react by posting relatively more vacancies.

Public Policy