March 2000

IZA DP No. 138: Firm-specific Training: Consequences for Job Mobility

published as 'On-the-job-training, job search and job mobility' in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie und Statistik / Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, 2003, 139 (4), 563-576

This paper analyzes the impact of formal training on worker mobility. Using data from the Swiss Labor Force Survey, we find that on-the-job search activities and, to a smaller extent, actual job separations are significantly affected by both employer-provided and general training. Moreover, while the separation probability of searching workers is strongly affected by previous firm-provided training, no such effect shows up for non-searchers. This is consistent with the hypothesis that workers bear most of the cost of specific training.