Online professional networking platforms are widely used and may help workers to search for and obtain jobs. We run the first randomized evaluation of training work seekers to join and use one of the largest platforms, LinkedIn. Training increases the end-of-program employment rate by 10 percent (7 percentage points), and this effect persists for at least 12 months. The available employment, platform use, and job search data suggest that employment effects are explained by work seekers using the platform to acquire information about prospective employers and perhaps by work seekers accessing referrals and conveying information to prospective employers on the platform. (JEL J22, J23, J24, J64, M53, O15)

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South Africa has one of the highest rates of youth unemployment and under-employment around the world, despite having a relatively large formal sector. This is driven, in part, by frictions in labor markets, including lack of information about job applicants’ skills, limited access to job training, and employers’ reliance on referrals through professional networks for hiring. This case study explores whether the online platform LinkedIn can be used to improve the employment outcomes of disadvantaged youth in South Africa. Researchers worked with an NGO, the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, to develop a training for young workseekers in the use of LinkedIn for job search, applications, and networking for referrals. This intervention was randomized across 30 cohorts of youth, with more than 1600 students enrolled in the study. The research team worked with LinkedIn engineers to access data generated by the platform. The evaluation finds that participants exposed to the LinkedIn training (the “treated” participants) were 10% more likely than the control group to find immediate employment, an effect that persisted for at least a year after job readiness training.

The COVID-19 pandemic is an economic shock that affects both the supply of and demand for goods and services. These effects are particularly profound in the hospitality and leisure sector, which includes the gaming industry. COVID-19 therefore has the potential to result in lasting damage to localities that depend on gaming revenues. For Indigenous gaming communities, the stakes are especially high. The Indigenous casino and gaming industry has been characterized as the coming of the “new buffalo,” a trope that alludes to the high levels of wealth enjoyed by bison-reliant communities in the Great Plains. Indeed, Indigenous gaming has been a valuable engine of economic growth for many communities across North America, but COVID-19 reveals this economic success to be a double-edged sword. The COVID-19 shock is now threatening to undermine an industry that has come to play a critical role in the physical and financial health of Indigenous gaming communities as well as in their capacity to exercise their right to self-determination.