Does having one’s own place to live make someone more employable?

ABSTRACT

This article encapsulates the findings of a randomized correspondence test field experiment investigating whether job candidates’ home status influences their employability. More than 2000 employers with vacancies in the Swedish labour market received a job application from a fictitious candidate. A job candidate’s home status (his or her own place to live or temporary housing with a friend) was randomized across employers. Results show that home status indeed affected the number of positive employer responses received by job candidates, mainly in low-skilled occupations. Not having a place to live at the time of the application proved a disadvantage when applying for positions within but an advantage when applying for positions outside the city of residence at the time of the application.

KEYWORDS:

• Housing status
• employability
• hiring
• field experiment

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• C93
• M51
• R23

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.