Hiring and market intermediaries : A comparative approach to the IT labour market in France and Great Britain

The British labour market is distinguished by a stronger presence of job placement agencies than the French market. We analyse this difference by pointing out the diverse roles played by labour market intermediaries in each country. Theoretically, we elaborate a framework in order to point out that the role played by intermediaries is linked to the nature of job matching processes. Empirically, we compare two samples of advertisements for job offers found in the IT sector. In Great Britain the considerable involvement of specialised recruitment agencies, which contribute to making information transparent, facilitates standard job matching processes. On the contrary, the asymmetry of information, to the applicant's detriment, noticed in French job offers and the role of pre-selection played by the intermediaries are consistent with more specific matches