MOTIVATION AND ACTIVE JOB SEARCH BEHAVIOR IN YOUNG PEOPLE: GENDER DIFFERENCES

The financial crisis and neoliberalism in Spain have affected the labor market especially for women. Several studies have analyzed how horizontal segregation, occupational financial segregation and occupational vertical segregation lead to inequalities in women's employment compared with men. Then, since 1992, the European Union has pointed out the need to implement strategies to facilitate the inclusion, retention and promotion of women in the labor market in order to achieve economic stability. In this regard, the Lisbon Strategy, in connection with the objectives of social cohesion and sustainable development in Europe, has presented this fact as a key element to increase women employment. Several international organizations have also proposed to develop policies and intervention programs to reduce the gender gap, however the results have not been satisfactory especially in young women. This situation indicates that the analysis of this gap represents a hot topic nowadays. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCDE) highlights motivational and behavioral aspects in the seeking of employment process. Some of the aspects outlined in this matter are: the development of control expectations, the attribution of causality, the belief in one's competence, and the development of expectations in terms of results in job search. Moreover, literature showed that the behaviors of active job research are different for each person depending on their economic constraints, number of children, civil status and educational level. Taking all of this into consideration, the main objective of this study is to analyse both, the motivation and active job search behavior in young people, and the gender differences throughout this process. To do this, a sample composed of 159 Spanish youth (49.1% men and 50.9% women) with ages between18-39 years old has been studied. All of them were invited to write open-ended responses with questions about their job research behaviors and to complete some questionnaires about their expectations of socio-professional integration, perceived control of employment, self-efficacy and locus of control. Once the information was collected, basic descriptive statistical, content, t tests and chi-square analysis were carried out to study differences that could have arisen. Finally, the results showed no significant differences in personal attributes, however there were significant gender differences in the job search behavior (in terms of information sources). Our results have therefore positive implications in terms of labor equality between men and women since they imply an improvement in the identification of indicators of effectiveness in training programs for women's labor research, and as a consequence, can contribute to the design of intervention empowerment policies for women.