Motivating Job Seekers

Abstract

Motivating job seekers takes more than an email

Simple email campaigns can reach thousands of job seekers—but they do not always work as expected. 

Governments increasingly turn to digital nudges such as email campaigns as a cheap and simple way to motivate unemployed people to search for work and find jobs faster. But a large Swedish experiment involving more than 200,000 job seekers produced a surprising result: the campaign did not work as expected. Although 72% of recipients opened the emails and both supportive and controlling messages increased compliance with reporting requirements, they did not help people find jobs. In fact, supportive messages reduced job applications and slightly lowered employment, while controlling messages sometimes even backfired among highly motivated workers.

Based on a new ROA research memorandum, also forthcoming in the Journal of Public Economics, entitled “Motivating Job Seekers. A Field Experiment” by Bart Cockx, Johan Egebark, Greet Van Hoye, Emilie Videnord, and Johan Vikström. 

Download Research Memorandum

Cockx, B., Egebark, J., Van Hoye, G., Videnord, E., & Vikström, J. (2026). Motivating Job Seekers: A Field Experiment. Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market. ROA Research Memoranda No. 002