Gender-age differences in hiring rates and prospective wages—Evidence from job referrals to unemployed workers

This paper uses matched worker-vacancy data to study gender differences in hiring outcomes of jobseekers in Austria. When registered at the public employment office, jobseekers are assigned caseworkers who refer them to suitable vacancies. Our findings show that female and male jobseekers are equally likely to get hired via such a referral, but it takes women longer to get a job offer. Most of the observed gender differences stem from younger jobseekers (below age 35) and are explained by rejections of employers. Young women are also less often hired for better-paying jobs. We argue that these differences are consistent with hiring discrimination against women in their fertile age. Our analysis shows that young female jobseekers are much more likely to go on parental leave in the future, while men almost never take extended parental leave. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that hiring differences are larger for jobs associated with higher replacement costs and smaller in tight labor markets.