Worker and Firm Search in the Labor Market: Evidence from Classified Advertisements

RePEc Short ID: ppe260
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2216-110X

Bi, Huixin; Petrosky-Nadeau, Nicolas; Traum, Nora; Woodward, Greg

doi:10.24148/wp2025-13

Working Paper

Worker and Firm Search in the Labor Market: Evidence from Classified Advertisements

Abstract: We present new monthly U.S. city-level and national measures of worker and firm search from 1900 to 1938, derived from scanned images of U.S. newspapers. To our knowledge, we are the first to systematically use the “situations-wanted” advertisements placed by job seekers. We document fresh insights into early 20th-century labor market dynamics: (1) worker and firm search efforts are procyclical; (2) posting costs affect advertising behavior and labor search intensity; (3) the Beveridge curve is stable over the last 125 years, with similar shifts following the 1918 flu and Covid-19 pandemic; and (4) regional and gender heterogeneity exists.

JEL Classification: J64; N32; E24; E32; C82;

https://doi.org/10.24148/wp2025-13