The structure of hiring and labour market tightness

This paper examines the structure of firms’ hiring processes using Dutch data compiled from filled vacancies. If more than one employee is to be hired, firms may choose either to hire all their employees at one time (instantaneous hiring) or to hire them over a longer period of time (gradual hiring). We find that 56% of the employees are hired at one time. Furthermore, a tightening of the labour market leads to a decrease in the probability of all employees being hired at one time.