Job Search Self-Regulation During COVID-19: Linking Search Constraints, Health Concerns, and Invulnerability to Job Search Processes and Outcomes

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused tremendous job loss and made it difficult for unemployed individuals to search for new jobs. Specifically, the pandemic has created numerous job search obstacles, such as increased childcare and community responsibilities, that interfere with job seekers' ability to search for a job. Yet, the job search literature has scantily examined the implications of such job search constraints for job seekers even in normal times, and the limited studies that do exist have produced mostly null findings. Drawing from self-regulation theories, we position COVID-19 job search constraints as a catalyst for lower hopeful search cognitions but greater reflective metacognitive activities. To account for the distinct mechanism via which health concerns highlighted by the pandemic influence job search, we further contend that job search self-regulation is contingent upon job seekers' COVID-19 invulnerability, a novel resource-protective cognition that reflects an optimistic perception regarding how at risk job seekers feel to catching and falling ill due to COVID-19. In turn, we link such self-regulatory cognition and effort to seekers' job search distress, and job search behaviors and outcomes (i.e., number of job interviews), respectively. We also identify health-related resource loss risk factors (i.e., health status and share of family and friends' COVID-19 exposure) that impact COVID-19 invulnerability perceptions. Collecting three waves of data from 228 unemployed job seekers, we found general support for our model. Theoretical and practical implications of the current research for now and after the pandemic are discussed.