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Kuang-Chi Chang

indicate that rural migrants are more likely to use network and market than hierarchy me-
thod to find jobs. Compared to the recent job search period after 2005, individuals looking
for jobs in earlier periods were less likely to use network and market compared to hie-
rarchy method. Using network method as the base category, the third set of results show
that rural migrants are less likely to use hierarchy than network channels in their job
searches. There is no statistically significant difference between rural migrants and urban
natives in the likelihood of their reliance on market over network method, supporting Hy-
potheses 3.1 and 3.2. Regarding job search periods, compared to individuals seeking jobs
after 2005, those who looked for jobs before 1990 were more likely to use hierarchy over
network method. At the same time, compared with after 2005, individuals looking for jobs
during the earlier periods are less likely to rely on market than network channels, with the
effect changing over time. Compared to the period after 2005, the likelihood of using
market over network method during the 1980s was the lowest (odds ratio=0.32; p<0.05),
then a stronger effect for the period for 1990s (odds ratio=0.42; p<0.01), and an even
stronger effect for the early 2000s (odds ratio=0.44; p<0.01). That is, the overall trend in-
dicates the relative probability of individuals’ relying on market method over network me-
thod is increasing over time. The results support Hypothesis 4.1 that suggests an increas-
ing reliance on market method.
6. Discussion and Conclusions

Filling a void in previous literature, this paper examines job search methods in urban Chi-
na by comparing rural migrants and urban natives using data from a 2008 survey in
Shanghai. While past research suggest a predominant reliance on networks for job search
by both groups in the 1980s and 1990s, this paper finds several interesting results regard-
ing job search methods for each group of individuals, particularly when they have looked
for jobs in recent years. The dominant job search methods in our data are networks for the
rural migrants, and hierarchy for urban natives. These are not surprising. However, the
results do not find migrant status matters in explaining individuals’ usage of networks over
market channels in job searching. Also, for both groups, these trends are conditioned by
the period of time when individuals sought jobs. While there is a greater reliance on net-
works than market channels, the gap between the two job search methods is shrinking,
since the reliance of networks is decreasing while the reliance of market channels is in-
creasing. Relatively to market and networks, the results also find a decreasing reliance on
hierarchy method in job searching over time.
Empirically, this study pioneers testing and comparing job search behaviors between
Chinese rural migrants and urban natives using more recent data. Most of the past research
investigated only one of the groups at the time, and they have produced some seemly con-
tradictory conclusions: Firstly, migrants and non-migrants should behave differently when
they look for jobs (Bailey and Waldinger, 1991; Fan, 2002); secondly, both Chinese rural
migrants and urban natives rely heavily on social networks for their job searches (Meng,
2000; Bian, 1997). This research, however, uses more updated information and finds ways
to make sense of these previously conflicting results. Migrants and urban natives did, in-
deed, have significantly different job search methods; while members of both groups relied
on social networks to find jobs, this reliance is changing over time in relationship to other
alternative job search methods.
Theoretically, these findings have several important implications. First, the ways people
find jobs not only vary according to institutional contexts (such as the differences between
the U.S. and China (Granovetter, 1995; Bian, 1997), but they are also subject to change
when institutional arrangements are in transition, such as in the case of China’s economic
reforms and social transformations. The comparison of rural migrants and urban natives

International Journal of Population Studies | 2015, Volume 1, Issue 1 103