Impact of Socio-Demographic Characteristics on the Choice of Job Search Channels Among Unemployed Job Seekers in Gampaha District

This study attempts to investigate the impact of socio-demographic characteristics on the choices of job search channels used by unemployed persons when seeking jobs in the Gampaha District. A structured questionnaire was administered on a face-to-face basis to collect data from a sample of 200 unemployed job seekers who live in the Attanagalla divisional secretariat division, Gampaha in 2023. The study used a systematic sampling procedure, and four types of job search channels, such as newspaper advertisements, the Internet and social media, direct contacts with an employer, and informal networks were taken as dependent variables, while socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents were considered as independent variables in the study. Frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, and chi-square tests were used to explore the basic features of the young job seekers in the study. Results of frequency analysis indicated that 22% of the unemployed used newspaper advertisements, 10.5% of them used direct contacts with the employer, 18% of them used informal networks, and 49.5% of them used the Internet and social media as their job search channels. A multinomial probit regression model was used to investigate how socio-demographic characteristics impact the choice of job search channels used by unemployed youth. The findings of the model revealed that except for household size, all socio-demographic characteristics, such as age, civil status, level of education, knowledge in information technology, duration of job search, and whether the person previously worked or not, have a significant influence on the young job seekers' job search channels.