Nudging increases take-up of employment services: Evidence from a large field experiment

When people lose their job, labor market programs help them get back to work. But administrative burdens can hinder enrollment in such programs. We report results from a mixed-method project to increase enrollment in employment services during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. First, we interviewed jobseekers and frontline staff to uncover administrative burdens. Second we worked with staff to co-design a behavioral “nudge” intervention. Finally, in a large field experiment (N = 14,008), we evaluate the impact of this intervention on participation in employment services. We present two main findings. First, reducing administrative burden triples enrollment in the program within the first 30 days. Second, we test two motivational frames—one emphasizing social norms, another using checklist messaging. We find that message framing drives engagement with communications, such as email open rates and website click-throughs. However, framing generates no statistically significant difference in enrollment rates. Our results demonstrate the potential for applied behavioral science to improve implementation of labor market policy. We also contribute to current debates about the effectiveness of nudging to increase take-up of public services.