Passive Recruitment in the Russian Urban Labor Market

Abstract

About half of the hires made in the Russian city of Samara in 1998 were accomplished without an employer's outreach effort to fill the position. Such passive recruitment is supported primarily by hiring managers’ personal ties and the networks of the firm's current and previous employees. The positive effect of a job's attractiveness on the likelihood of passive recruitment is dampened by an increase in the stringency of the job's technical and social requirements. Thus, if necessary, employers actively search for candidates who meet the job requirements, and therefore the cost of search is the primary factor behind passive recruitment.