Discussion paper

DP15420 Gig-jobs: stepping stones or dead ends?

How useful is work experience from the gig economy for labor market entrants searching for traditional wage jobs? We conducted a correspondence study in Sweden, comparing callback rates for recent high school graduates with (i) gig-experience, (ii) traditional experience, and (iii) unemployment history. We also study heterogeneous responses with respect to perceived foreign background. Our findings suggest that gig-experience is more valuable than unemployment, but less useful than traditional experience for majority applicants. Strikingly however, no form of labor market experience increases the callback rate for minority workers.

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Citation

Hensvik, L and A Adermon (2020), ‘DP15420 Gig-jobs: stepping stones or dead ends?‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 15420. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp15420