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What the study is about

The purpose of this research is to understand how job seekers search for new employment, and whether a novel job search platform can help in this process.

What we will ask you to do

We will ask you to sign up to our job search platform and periodically answer surveys about your job search efforts. The platform you are signing up for contains over 50,000 vacancies in the state of New York. You can find vacancies using keyword search and quickly identify the ones that fit you best using summaries we generate. You may use the platform as often and for as long as you like. You are not allowed to sign up with more than one account. We reserve the right to ask you to verify your identity (and withhold payment until you do) in case we suspect you have multiple accounts on the platform. You can verify your identity through knowledge-based authentication or a video call with a member of the research team.

We will also ask you to periodically answer surveys. You will receive these invitations by email or text message, depending on whether you provided us with a phone number or not. The first survey will take place at sign-up on the platform. You will then receive invitations to answer a survey 2 weeks, 2 months and 4 months after signing up that will take place through Qualtrics. For each of the surveys you answer (including the first), you will receive $20. The surveys contain questions about your job search process. We expect each survey to take around 15 minutes.

In the survey you receive after 2 weeks, we will ask for your consent for the Principal Investigators of this study to obtain de-identified administrative records of your wage and unemployment insurance held by the New York State Department of Labor. An application for this has been filed and is pending with the New York State Department of Labor. These records will be used to conduct additional statistical analyses for the purpose of this research study (and only for that purpose). You will be asked to sign a separate consent form for this. Your consent to the release of these records is not required to participate in this study.

Risks and discomforts

We do not anticipate any risks from participating in this research beyond what you would usually experience as part of the job search process.

Benefits

There are no direct benefits to participating, beyond the benefits of using the platform for your search. To the extent that the vacancies or information on our platform are new to you, you might obtain a better understanding of the labor market.

Overall, for society it is useful to understand how individuals search for jobs and how they find new employment.

Compensation for participation

For each survey you answer, you will receive $20 in compensation in the form of a gift card for one of 100+ options, including Amazon, Apple, Doordash, Spotify and Starbucks. We will send you these gift cards within a week after you complete the survey (with the exception of the period between December 25 and January 1).

Privacy/Confidentiality/Data Security

Throughout your use of this platform, we will be collecting data. These data include your search behavior on the study platform (search inputs, vacancies viewed, vacancies saved, and for which vacancies you clicked the application link). The post-registration surveys will be conducted through Cornell Qualtrics. We anticipate that your participation in these surveys presents no greater risk than everyday use of the Internet. If you sign up with a LinkedIn account, we will record job-related information that you choose to post on your public LinkedIn profile for the purpose of evaluating the study.

Your usage data, survey answers and LinkedIn information (if applicable) will be de-identified at the end of the study and made available to the broader research community. We will remove or code any personal information that could identify you before files are shared with to ensure that, by current scientific standards and known methods, no one will be able to identify you from the information we share. Despite these measures, we cannot guarantee anonymity of your personal data.

We take great care to protect your privacy. We will use your personally identifiable data only to process your payments and contact you. To authorize access to your wage and unemployment insurance records to us, we will ask you to sign a separate consent form in the survey you receive 2 weeks after sign-up. Signing this form is not required for continued participation in the study.

After the study has concluded, we may ask you for additional information. You will be free to provide or not provide this information. This will not have any effect on your compensation.

We will do our best to keep your participation in this research study confidential to the extent permitted by law; however, it is possible that other people may need to review the research records and may find out about your participation in this study. For example, the following people/groups may check and copy records about this research:

• The Office for Human Research Protections in the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Cornell University’s Institutional Review Board (a committee that reviews and approves research studies) and the Office for Research Integrity and Assurance

Please note that email communication is neither private nor secure. Though we are taking precautions to protect your privacy, you should be aware that information sent through e-mail could be read by a third party. Your confidentiality will be kept to the degree permitted by the technology being used. We cannot guarantee against interception of data sent via the internet by third parties.

If you have questions

The Principal Investigators responsible for this study are Michèle Belot and Philipp Kircher, both professors at the Economics Department and the Industrial Labor Relations School at Cornell University. If you have questions related to the information provided in this form, you may contact Michele Belot at mb2693@cornell.edu. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your rights as a subject in this study, you may contact the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for Human Participants at 607-255-5138 or access their website here.