How detailed should social networks be for labor market's models ?

International audienceMany empirical studies emphasis the role of social net- works in job search. The social network implied in this process is known to be characterized by complex properties, including com- munities, homophily or more or less strong ties. Nevertheless, pre- vious models of the labor markets fail to capture the complexity of social networks, as each specific network requires the development of specific algorithms. In this paper, we rather rely on an indepen- dent generic network generator for creating detailed networks de- scribing friendships, colleagues, communities and various degrees of connectivity. We build a simple model of the labor market in which individuals find positions solely through their acquaintances, and up- date their network when being hired. This original experimental set- ting facilitates the analysis of various characteristics of networks on the labor market, including various size, more or less friendships, or the impact of communities. Experiments confirm the "strength of weak ties" phenomenon. However, the initial characteristics of the network like communities are shown to be destroyed by the implau- sible mechanisms described into this simplistic model; this suggests that the impact of plausible networks on models' dynamics may only be studied when the mechanisms of this model are plausible as well - in other words, "a model is only as descriptive as its most implausible components