Governments increasingly turn to digital nudges such as email campaigns as a cheap and simple way to motivate unemployed people to search for work and find jobs faster. But a large Swedish experiment involving more than 200,000 job seekers produced a surprising result: the campaign did not work as expected. Although 72% of recipients opened the emails and both supportive and controlling messages increased compliance with reporting requirements, they did not help people find jobs. In fact, supportive messages reduced job applications and slightly lowered employment, while controlling messages sometimes even backfired among highly motivated workers. The findings show that effective nudges depend on context, trust, and autonomy. It is therefore important to rigorously test such interventions carefully and measure real outcomes, not just engagement.
World of Labour
Simple email campaigns can reach thousands of job seekers—but they do not always work as expected.
