Source: Manudeep Bhuller, Andreas R. Kostøl, Trond C. Vigtel, “How Broadband Internet Affects Labor Market Matching,” CESifo Working Paper No. 8022, December 2019.
Commentary: Broadband availability dramatically changed the nature of job markets, allowing businesses to reach larger pools of qualified applicants, as evidenced by the fact that the percentage of U.S. job seekers who used the Internet for their job searches tripled between 2000 and 2011. A new study has sought to quantify this effect by leveraging Norway’s staggered implementation of broadband along with business surveys on the ease of hiring. It finds that having access to broadband reduced firms’ average vacancy length by 9 percent and that 13 percent fewer firms reported experiencing problems recruiting new employees.
