Class Advantage in the White-Collar Labor Market: An Investigation of Social Class Background, Job Search Strategies, and Job Search Success

• Published in: Journal of applied psychology 2021-11, Vol.106 (11), p.1695-1713
• Main Authors: Fang, Ray T., Saks, Alan M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Background; Business students; Employment interviews; Female; Human; Income; Income Level; Inequality; Job hunting; Job Search; Job searching; Labor Market; Male; Multisource; Parental Occupation; Parents & parenting; Polls & surveys; Prediction; Search strategies; Social Capital; Social Class; Social classes; Strategies; Upper class; Upper Socioeconomic Status; Working class
• ISSN: 0021-9010; 1939-1854
• DOI: 10.1037/apl0000842

We proposed that individuals from upper-class backgrounds are more effective at job search than their working-class counterparts in the white-collar labor market. We further proposed that this is partly because upper-class individuals adopt different job search strategies. Our predictions were tested with a time-lagged multisource survey (Study 1) and a 4-wave, 2-month longitudinal survey (Study 2) of business student job seekers. Study 1 found that parental income strengthened the relationship between job search intensity and job search success and that this interaction was mediated by a less haphazard job search strategy. Parental income also strengthened the relationship between job interviews and job offers. Study 2 mostly replicated these findings while showing that the effects generalize to other facets of class background. Study 2 additionally explored mechanisms for why working-class individuals use a more haphazard job search strategy. Although class background positively predicted social capital and social capital negatively predicted a haphazard strategy, social capital did not mediate the negative relationship between class background and a haphazard strategy. Finally, although working-class individuals use a more haphazard strategy on average, exploratory analyses show that those with high psychological capital start with a more haphazard strategy but progress to a low haphazard strategy within two months-on par with upper-class individuals. Conversely, working-class individuals with low psychological capital maintained a more haphazard approach over time. Our findings add new insights into how individuals can conduct a more effective job search and why class inequality remains so durable.