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Corporate Hiring Under COVID-19: Financial Constraints and the Nature of New Jobs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2023

Murillo Campello ,
Gaurav Kankanhalli  and
Pradeep Muthukrishnan
Murillo Campello*
Affiliation:
Cornell University Johnson Graduate School of Management and NBER
Gaurav Kankanhalli
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business gkankanhalli@katz.pitt.edu
Pradeep Muthukrishnan
Affiliation:
Tulane University Freeman School of Business pmuthukrishnan@tulane.edu
*
campello@cornell.edu (corresponding author)
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Abstract

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Big data on job postings reveal multiple facets of the impact of COVID-19 on corporate hiring. Firms disproportionately cut new hiring for high-skill positions, with financially constrained firms reducing skilled hiring the most. Applying machine learning methods to job-ad texts, we find that firms have skewed their hiring toward operationally-core functions. New positions display greater flexibility regarding schedules and tasks. While job posting levels show signs of recovery starting in late-2020, changes to job descriptions and skill profiles persist through early-2022. Financial constraints amplify these changes, with constrained firms’ new hires witnessing greater adjustments to job roles and employment arrangements.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , June 2024 , pp. 1541 - 1585
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington

Footnotes

We thank an anonymous referee and Ran Duchin (the editor) for insightful suggestions. We are grateful to Tom Ashenmacher at LinkUp and David Gilbertson at UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) for data access and support. We thank Warren Bailey, Utpal Bhattacharya, Charles Calomiris, Sudheer Chava, Will Cong, Gustavo Cortes, Juan Dubra, Daniel Ferrés, Julia Fonseca, John Graham, Jussi Keppo, Hyunseob Kim, Ernst Maug (WFA discussant), Justin Murfin, Marcus Painter (FMA discussant), Kosali Simon, David Sraer, Eva Steiner (FIFI discussant), Margarita Tsoutsoura, Michael Weisbach, and conference and seminar participants at the 2021 Financial Management Association Meeting, 2021 International Conference of the Financial Engineering and Banking Society, 2020 Journal of Finance and Chicago Booth Fama-Miller Center Conference on the Financial Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2021 Fixed Income and Financial Institutions Conference, 2021 National University of Singapore Analytics for X Conference, 2020 Shanghai-Edinburgh Fintech Conference, 2021 Western Finance Association Meeting, Georgia Tech, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Universidad de Montevideo, University of Edinburgh, and University of Hong Kong for valuable comments.

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