Matching for three: big data evidence on search activity of workers, firms, and employment service

We generate measures for search intensity of employers and job seekers and - as a novel feature - for placement intensity of employment agencies. For this purpose, we tap big data on online activity from the job exchange of the German Federal Employment Agency and its internal placement-software. We use these data to estimate an enhanced matching function where the efficiency parameter varies with the search and placement intensities. The results show that the intensity measures significantly contribute to the variation in job findings.